Drone attacks are wrong and cowardly, regardless
Drone attacks are wrong. I’m sure to be called an appeaser of terrorists for saying that, particularly in light of the latest events in Mumbai. But I think it’s important for Pakistanis, who are on the receiving end of the humiliation and much worse that drone attacks inflict, to hear an American say it. Hopefully some Americans will read this, too. First and foremost, whatever the official pablum or even the truth about “suspected militants” or “alleged al Qaeda leaders,” innocent civilians are being killed.
Sometimes it’s important to start from first principles, and I think one of those is that it’s wrong to terrorise women and children with unmanned aircraft piloted remotely from the other side of the planet. In the dark calculations of a flawed political world, even something that’s clearly wrong can be justified, if not truly justifiable, if it has good results. The philosophical school that makes such arguments is called utilitarianism, and its adherents – such as, I suppose, the Obama administration – could say drone attacks are necessary because they somehow protect Americans. That argument is marketable to the US public, precisely because it’s vague and plays on people’s fears and ignorance. And, from a Machiavellian point of view, it has the merit of being unfalsifiable: If terrorist attacks don’t happen in America, the US administration can say that’s because of drone attacks in Pakistan.
But meanwhile, actual, non-hypothetical life in Waziristan and beyond is being severely disrupted. When we hear about drone attacks at all in the American media – which we often don’t – it’s usually either asserted or simply assumed that they’re necessary and having the right results. The experts assured us that we were winning in Vietnam, too. I wish we would stop taking their word for it. One US military officer in Vietnam said something that became infamous as a symbol for that entire doomed war effort: “We had to destroy the village in order to save it.” Is that what America is doing all over again in Waziristan?
I don’t know, because I haven’t been there. But when I traveled in Pakistan in 2009 for my book Overtaken By Events, I made a point of seeking out people who had lived there or in Dera Ismail Khan, a city that has become all too frequent a dateline.
My Pakistani-American friend Dr. Shahnaz Khan urged me to try to go there, but acknowledged that it might not be safe for goras to visit. “It’s a small, sleepy town,” she told me. “People were minding their own business, [didn’t] want to get in any trouble, to the point of being lazy, frankly. Since all this happened, a lot of people have migrated into Dera Ismail Khan. … [The] cantonment is right next to the river, and people used to go out and walk by the river. And now they have bunkers, and it’s very difficult for people from the city to go there. My mother lives there and now, we have friends, and it’s really hard for them even to visit her.” All the displaced people fleeing the drone attacks were disrupting life in Dera, Shahnaz told me. “They don’t have any permanent places to live, and they have a different language, different culture,” she said.
An urbane young businessman I met in Islamabad, Faiysal Ali Khan, echoed Shahnaz. Refugees from the drone attacks, he told me, “have had a huge, huge impact on our culture, our society, our people. All these things got disturbed. They brought in the guns, the narcotics, all the illicit trade. Not that I’m saying that they’re bad or anything. They’re refugees; what are they supposed to do?” I asked him about the loyalties of the general public in Waziristan. “On one side, the drone strikes are happening,” he said. “On the other side, Pakistan Army is also bombing you. Americans also bombing you. International community in Nato, ISAF; they’re also bombing you. Everyone is bombing. They’re bombing, bombing, killing innocent people, everything. Why should we have any feeling towards any of these?”
In Karachi, I met a 15-year-old Waziri refugee. “Most of these drone attacks kill innocent people,” he told me through a translator. “They ask our government to tell the people that all of the people who are killed are foreigners. But that is not the case. Most of them are innocent people. Every person has now become a victim of the US, from these drone attacks. What the US is doing by these drone attacks is creating more problems for themselves, rather than solving problems. Every person now that did not want to carry weapons, now wants to carry a weapon, because his children have died in these US attacks. They’re just making it worse for themselves.”
That was more than two years ago. Have things gotten better since then?
I don’t believe there’s any big conspiracy in the US to disregard voices such as these; it’s just that no one here wants to hear what they’re saying. A few of us are trying to get others to listen. I’m doing what I can, through my writing and public speaking, not only for the sake of suffering Waziris and other Pakistanis, but for the good of my own country. America is damaging not only its soul, but also its already badly compromised national economy. And – notwithstanding any circumstances or excuses – attacking people from afar, at no immediate risk to oneself, is cowardly.
Ethan Casey is the author of Alive and Well in Pakistan and Overtaken By Events: A Pakistan Road Trip. He can be reached at www.facebook.com/ethancaseyfans and www.ethancasey.com
The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
Please see news item dated: 2 August 2011 from the Dawn newspaper. Incidents like these justify the usage of Drones or whatever else is available to our Government:
"DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Pakistani intelligence officials say a suspected US missile strike has killed four alleged militants near the Afghan border.
The officials say the missiles fired from an unmanned drone hit a car Tuesday in Kutab Khel village near Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal area. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The officials say the area has a mix of Afghan and Pakistani Taliban fighters, as well as other foreign militants."
The biggest problem perhaps is the mystery surrounding these drone attacks, as both governments have not come clean on the subject. This has resulted in grievance especially in the Pakistani public.
Okhlahoma bomber, Timothy McVeigh, when asked about the killing of innocent kids in the incident , remarked in his military tongue …" it was only a collateral damage .." . Probably, the US military may be seeing the loss of life to the commoner as 'collateral damage' .
TTP has killed 35000 innocent civilians while Civilian casualties from drone strikes do not even come close to that figure. Moreover, drones have been very effective in wiping out mid-high level TTP leadership and certainly cause less collateral damage than ground military operations (which often just raze villages and small towns). Your argument is academic at best, but ask those who have lost loved ones when markets, mosques, girls schools, shrines, govt buildings etc have been bombed by terrorists and they'll tell you that they fully support drone strikes. Read any book on TTP and you'll know that drones have been effective at wiping out various Taliban leaders.
The Pakistan Army has to take ownership of these strikes and come out to the public and acknowledge their effectiveness at wiping out TTP and all the anti-Drone hooplah will disappear. Pakistan's main enemies lurk in the mountains of FATA, and there is no better way to target them than drones.
Everybody knows who is creating havoc in Pakistan and which countries are supporting TTP and other militants.
I am 100% agree with you CASEY..!!! Drone Attacks are said to be Inhuman and Wild act…….., Innocent lives are changed into ashes, In fact poor people are suffered due to these attacks.
Dear Casey,
I sincerely appreciate your concerns, I believe Americans claimed that Iraq possesses WMD, but to me, actually humans are weapons of mass destruction, this is happening since man stepped on this earth, and believe me this will continue happening, and the only remedy is each individual try to behave like humans and fix its own affairs. Peace is beyond imagination and the only period we will see peace when ultimately Isa A. S. (Jesus0 rule the earth for 40 years. May Allah bless us all more ameen.
This is a very complex subject. Drone attacks sadly do have collateral damage but as much or less than any other military operation. Pakistan has a clear right to protest drone attacks on their soil by a foreign force. US has a right to ensure that cross border terrorism from Pakistan is contained by all the legitimate means that they possess. Terrorism is a scourge on the whole of earth. I think the balance in this war is tilted against the civilized world. Asking the civilized world not to use technolgy such as drones in their fight against terrorism would tilt the scale more in favour of the terrorists. I think the international community as a whole should decide on whether use of drones to target terrorists is permissible, keeping in mind any consequential loss of innocent lives. Anyway terming drone attacks as cowardly is absurd.
Only an independent State can face another independent State. Pakistan is not an independent state and hence we see the ramifications. Pakistani Govt are not freed to make decisions because they are lacky of the Western-powers. Until and unless Islam is establish as an political system in Pakistan, the Western-power will keep pulling the strings to weaken/destryoy us just they did to other Muslim countries. Its high time for us to stop procastinating and start working towards an Islamic agenda!!!
If Pakistan keeps sending terrorists to other countries. Other countries have every right to hunt down the terrorists since Pak army will not clamp down on the terrorists. This situation will end only if Pak army is dismantled and resources are used for the welfare of common Pakistanis.
Did your country do the same? dismantling its army and diverting resources for welfare of its people?
Sir
Very understandable article from Pakistan view point. But why of all the reasons Pakistan is bearing with this humiliation? Why it does not shot down these drones? I know that PAF must have the capacity to do this. But I believe, it is not being done as there seems to be an unwritten understanding to this between Pakistan and USA. If that was not so, Pakistan being such a proud nation would not have allowed it to happen. The underlying compulsions for allowing these drone attacks are equally understandable. But sooner than later, hopefully, this chapter would end soon.
BNA
If drone is coward…
I would consider all modern arms – guns, fighter planes, tanks etc… coward as welll – compared to fighting with sword… or even better – fist fight….
Drone attacks kill annocent people……check
Drone attacks often kill terrorists too……..
Check
Terrorist use Wazirirstan and surrounding areas to launch attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan….
Check
We have two choices to make either we solve our problem or let the Americans do it their way. Any comments.
Drone attacks are not wrong and cowardly but right and strategic. Why expose American lives to the needless danger to save Pakistan from homegrown terrorists when a drone can do the same job.
Drone attacks are wrong and cowardly, but are they any worse than the jihadi/fidayeen missions?