Several missiles fired from American drone aircraft on Thursday struck a meeting of local people in northwest Pakistan who had gathered with Taliban mediators to settle a dispute over a chromite mine. The attack, a Pakistani intelligence official said, killed 26 of 32 people present, some of them Taliban fighters, but the majority elders and local people not attached to the militants.
The civilian death toll appeared to be among the worst in the scores of strikes carried out recently in Pakistan’s tribal areas by the C.I.A., which runs the drones. Local residents and media reports said as many as 40 people had been killed in all, though the intelligence official disputed that.
The Pakistani military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, issued an unusual and unusually strong condemnation of the attack. “It is highly regrettable that a jirga of peaceful citizens, including elders of the area, was carelessly and callously targeted with complete disregard to human life,” the statement said.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
And what does Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, have to say about this kind of thing?
“My concern is that drones/Predators are being operated in a framework which may well violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law,” he said.
http://my.firedoglake.com/...
Violating international humanitarian law? Who, us? The guardians of Freedom®?
This episode was nothing more than a tragic accident. Profoundly regrettable.
Just like the one from Tuesday. In that other Muslim country.
The NATO-led force in Afghanistan said on Wednesday it was investigating yet another air strike that had apparently gone wrong, this time killing two children, and had suspended one of its commanders and grounded a helicopter crew.
Civilian casualties caused by foreign troops are a major source of tension between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Western allies. They also anger Afghans, complicating efforts to win their support for a war that has brought only misery for most people. ...
"I cannot overstate how seriously we take all instances of civilian casualties. I take personal interest in every case, and have recently ordered a review of our tactical directive on the use of force by all aircrews of attack helicopters," the statement quoted Petraeus as saying.
http://news.yahoo.com/...
I wonder how much wider the general's personal interest can continue to spread. He does have a war to win, you know.
Given that our stated purpose in Aghanistan - at least this week - is to protect civilians, and considering the body count American air power is racking up in the process, do the Libyan rebels really want it to undertake the same project on their behalf?
But however things turn out for the Libyans, one group is already a winner: the arms manufacturers for whom the Peace Laureate has been so effective a salesman.
Obama in his first term is peddling almost 10 times as many weapons of death, destruction, repression and suffering than George W. Bush in his second term at the helm of the world-engulfing American War Machine. This is the reason why our Masters of War gave more money to Obama than to John McCain in 2008. The historic agent of hope and change had obviously clued them in on how well he would serve their sinister interests.
And the bulk of the Obama arms bazaar is going to one of the most repressive, hidebound, extremist regimes on earth: Saudi Arabia. The Saudi royals make the odious Moammar Gaddafy look like Thomas Jefferson in comparison. Yet Obama has gifted them with one of the biggest arms deals in human history.
http://www.uruknet.info/...
The Saudi royals whose foreign minister so recently announced that the regime would "cut off any finger" raised against it.
And still there are those among you who can delude yourselves into thinking that our coming assault on the holder of the world's 9th largest oil reserves is being motivated by humanitarian considerations.
Those of you truly do have the government you deserve.