Monday, June 04, 2012

Are we at war, then?


Associated Press reporting (you can read an article in the New York Daily News here) sketches a hair-raising portrait of events now transpiring in Pakistan.  

Today, the Pakistani government condemned the on-going drone attacks made by US forces within Pakistani territory.  In the last three days, the US has conducted three such attacks, killing 27 persons including an unspecified number of "suspected militants."  Altogether, the US has conducted 7 such attacks in the last 2 weeks.

Are we at war with Pakistan?

Here's a little snippet from the NYDN article:
The Pakistani government and parliament have repeatedly asked the U.S. to stop the strikes.
The ongoing attacks are also complicating efforts for the U.S. and Pakistan to come to an agreement over reopening the supply routes to NATO and American forces in Afghanistan. American airstrikes inadvertently killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November, prompting Islamabad to block U.S. and NATO supply lines running through its territory.
The US first began the drone attacks in 2004, and has accelerated them since President Obama came to office.  There have been 297 drone attacks in the last 8 years.  Late last year, the CIA halted the attacks after a mistaken strike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.  But now they're back at it.  Civilians have died, including children, although there are no reliable numbers.  It's in the hundreds by most accounts. 

Are we at war, then?  Because it's starting to look that way.  We just may be tripping into a war with a nuclear-armed nation of 175 million people right in the middle of a boiling hot kettle.

We better think this over, people. 

Pakistan isn't Cambodia.  Pakistan isn't Laos.

This is deep water, here.

No comments: