In the middle of an election campaign, it's easy for news like this to get missed. So I decided to diary it. In yet another example of Bush administration lacking any strategy on Pakistan, US forces flew into Pakistan using helicopters, landed outside a village, went into a house and killed 10 people including 2 children. After the shootings, they got out to see lots of villagers coming out of their homes. So they started shooting at them killing 10 more people including 3 children this time.
"The Americans came in helicopters, landed, walked up to the houses, started shooting and then flew back towards Afghanistan," a villager told Dawn. Dawn news
What made matters worse is that this was the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Muslims fast during this month, make an extra effort to avoid sins they would ordinarily commit (lying, cursing etc.) and consider dying during the month being good in the hereafter. Traditionally Muslims also suspend wars/fueds during this month. The government of Pakistan just concluded a major operation killing 100s of militants in time for Ramadan to announce a truce as a good-will gesture to secure local tribes' support against militants.
This incident perfectly demonstrates how disfunctional the US strategy in Afganistan and Pakistan is. First, the official US policy is to not take unilateral action inside Pakistan. This action was taken without notifying Pakistani authorities or sharing any intelligence with them.
A security official said the Americans no longer shared information with Pakistan before launching missile or predator attacks in the tribal region. "They are not sharing any information with us. These are all totally unilateral actions."Dawn news
This was not a stray missile landing in Pakistan or a plane entering Pakistan for a quick hit at a target. It was a ground operation, the first of its kind. Something like this should have been approved at a high enough level and you'd expect that at that level there would be a sense of informing Pakistani government. Second, it seems like this action was taken on faulty intelligence. Damn it, if you are going to go in Pakistan and shoot everyone you see in a village, can you not make sure your intelligence is solid. The way things are, people would be tipping off their enemies to US intelligence to get them killed for free.
Pentagon declined to comment. What could they say even if they had any clue.
The Pentagon has refused to comment officially on the attack, but several defense officials acknowledged that U.S. military activity had taken place inside Pakistan.
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The Pentagon has refused to comment officially on the attack, but several defense officials acknowledged that U.S. military activity had taken place inside Pakistan.CNN
The asinine action of the US soldier accomplishes nothing to solve the Afghanistan/Pakistan militant issue and makes the job of the new government of Pakistan extremely difficult. These are the kind of acts that incite hatred for US in these parts of the world. And then you hear Bush saying that terrorists hate US because they hate freedom. Terrorists may hate US for whatever reason, the people we do not want to hate us are the ordinary men and women in these parts of world. Without their support, it would be impossible to root out militants. And actions like these give these ordinary men and women real reasons to hate US in the form of their family members, friends and fellow villagers who were killed by US forces for no reasons.