May 01, 2012    

Hard on the heels of Khar-Grossman talks in which Pakistan turned down the US request to let Nato supplies pass through, the US ended its month-long hiatus in drone warfare and claimed that it had killed four suspected militants and wounded two others holed up in a girls’ school in North Waziristan on Sunday. The truth is that the attack left four young girls dead. The attack seems more like an attempt to pressurise Islamabad rather than fighting terrorism. And even so far as terrorism is concerned, drone strikes have been criticised by none other than anonymous high ranking members of the US Administration as a ‘recruiting windfall’ for the militants.

For Pakistan, they further compound the problem since they create a backlash leading to a spate of deadly bomb blasts. And we all know how many innocent persons the drones kill in comparison with a minute number of terrorists. One wonders if anyone would have the gall to take the perpetrators to the Hague for war crimes. This is senseless manslaughter. Right on the other side of the border, the US is going to great lengths to placate the same tribesmen to find a safe exit. Since it calls itself an ally of Pakistan, it must help it find the negotiated settlement that it is pursuing in Afghanistan. Drone wars figure nowhere in this scheme of things. It must be stopped.

( thw nation )