Now that the first decade has passed since the horrific attacks of September 11 that led our government to invade and occupy 2 Middle Eastern countries, it appears that the end may finally be in sight for these "wars."
At least, that is the "official" reality. Troops are being withdrawn from Iraq and Afghanistan, and supposedly combat operations in both places are drawing to a close in the foreseeable future.
But, as we all know, this "official" truth is not the whole truth, because the CIA's drone program, which is classified and so cannot even be mentioned by President Obama or his Administration, continues. This is not only a holdover from the previous administration's War on Terror, it is a tactic that has been wholeheartedly embraced by the this Administration and made its own, with drone attacks actually being ramped by a factor of five since Obama took office.
It's not just the numbers that have been increased, either. The breadth of those targets has been steadily increasing since the Bush Administration.
And the strikes aren't just against al-Qaida's leadership. In 2008, the Bush administration broadened the campaign to include lower-ranking foot soldiers. They also started targeting groups that Pakistan saw as threats. The Obama administration did the same thing.
And why not? This ability to drop Hellfire missiles on the locations of "suspected" U.S. enemies (well, someone's enemies) by remote-control, is a lot less politically costly than putting American troops in harm's way.
According to former U.S. officials, the Obama administration made a decision to step up the drone campaign. The technology has gotten better — drones can now hover for days at a time.
Meanwhile, the military personnel who control the drones by pushing buttons in front of computer screens in Nevada can head home after work to have dinner with their families. That's a pretty sweet deal for us.
Of course...there is a high price paid by the communities where these attacks occur.
Not so long ago there was a powerful diary on the Recommended list that featured graphic images of the bodies of children who had been maimed and killed by our forces in Iraq. I am wondering where that same empathy is for the children on the Pakistan border.
This is a topic that is rarely discussed around here, either on the Front Page or in diaries. I would like to use a story told by a human rights attorney in an editorial yesterday to start a discussion about the drone attacks, and whether we as Democrats support their use.
The story is told in an editorial in the New York Times, here
The writer is Clive Stafford Smith, an American lawyer. He recently traveled to Islamabad, where he took part in an extraordinary meeting, set up by elders in the border region that our government has been bombarding with missiles for years now:
The meeting had been organized so that Pashtun tribal elders who lived along the Pakistani-Afghan frontier could meet with Westerners for the first time to offer their perspectives on the shadowy drone war being waged by the Central Intelligence Agency in their region. Twenty men came to air their views; some brought their young sons along to experience this rare interaction with Americans. In all, 60 villagers made the journey.
One of the sons who came to talk to the Westerners during a day-long, formal meeting that included a communal meal, was a boy named Tariq.
During the meal, I met a boy named Tariq Aziz. He was 16. As we ate, the stern, bearded faces all around me slowly melted into smiles. Tariq smiled much sooner; he was too young to boast much facial hair, and too young to have learned to hate.
I hope all of you will take the time to read this. It's not long, and the story it tells about what happens next is both powerful and important.
We are such a powerful country. The actions of our government have real consequences for people living their lives in parts of the world most of us will never see. When I lived abroad I was struck by how tuned in the rest of the world is to what goes on in our country, especially our politics. They are watching us all the time--I just wish our country would return the favor and stop turning a blind eye to what is being done to them by our government, in our name, right now, with no end in sight.