With the economy teetering in a different direction every day, two occupations and a constant parade of ridiculous politician behavior it is not overly surprising that America’s actions in Pakistan are not being covered on a continuous basis. After all, Guantanamo Bay is no longer brought up nearly as often as it used to be and it was a perfect example of the American government overstepping its boundaries in the war on terror.
What is surprising is that America’s actions in Pakistan are not discussed at all outside of an article or two every few months. Since the Bush administration, the CIA have launched drone attacks on targets in the mountains of Pakistan that they believe are somehow affiliated with Al Queda or Taliban activities. In the past Pakistan has claimed that they have no knowledge of the attacks and have not allowed them. Now, America allows the Pakistani government to have more of an input on who is targeted and who isn’t which leads to new questions such as how much can we trust the Pakistani leadership? Perhaps most chilling is that no one can quite come out with a solid number on just how many civilians have been killed thanks to these attacks as there is little to no oversight for the operation.
While it was the Bush administration which authorized the use of drones in the wake of the September 11th attacks, the number of drone attacks has increased dramatically since Obama took office. The government continues to claim that high value targets are being killed but at this point they can only be taken at their word as the CIA refuses to comment on any of its operations. Outside of occasionally naming someone who is supposed to be yet another Al Queda number two, the government remains silent on just who is being killed as well.
Concern for these attacks is legitimate. The more often America takes actions such as these the more it will look like a bully to the people of the Middle East. With its image there already so hurt by the invasion of Iraq the last things it needs is yet another example of unneeded and unlawful American violence.
With Defense Secretary Robert Gates calling for cuts in the budget and with so many in Congress all of a sudden worrying about the deficit an examination of the drone program would be appropriate and yet it does not seem to be a part of the national conversation. Some might say that this is because the government does not want the drone attacks to be discussed. This may well be true but some media has reported on it in the past so to lay the blame for the lack of response at the foot of some sort of shadowy government conspiracy would be a foolish one. It is also easy to place the blame on the news media for not covering the story. They do deserve some of it as no doubt part of the reason they do not cover the story is due to laziness because the drone attacks are happening in such an empty, quiet corner of Pakistan. But the nonexistent reaction on the behalf of the American people is where much of the blame must be placed. At the moment, people simply do not seem to care which isn’t surprising as they have no real connection to what is going on there. There are no American troops in Pakistan carrying out these killings nor are any Americans getting killed in the process. So many people are getting killed in the world that it is easy to ignore the drone attacks in Pakistan since the drones are quiet and do not return with PTSD. But ignoring this situation is a mistake as the situation in the Middle East is already so tenuous that to add more bloodshed, especially when America is involved, is a very dangerous move.
Of course, that’s not even to mention the fact that these drones, paid for with American tax dollars, may be killing large number of Pakistani civilians. Perhaps if Americans realized that they are complicit with the destruction that these drone attacks create just as much as they are with the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan they might start to ask some questions.