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  • Howling at the moon

    Howling at the moon
    By Irfan Husain
    Saturday, 09 Jan, 2010
    DAWN.COM | Columnists | Howling at the moon
    The only civilians who have been killed are the family members of the militants in whose houses other terrorists have gathered, Dr. Farhat Taj writes in her article. –File Photo

    Many of us in the punditry profession are guilty of making generalisations about what is happening in the tribal areas without having visited them in recent times. Thus, when we hear about the anger and outrage supposedly sweeping though the people of Fata over the frequent drone attacks, we tend to accept this as the gospel truth.

    This myth was recently exploded by Farhat Taj in her article ‘Drone attacks: challenging some fabrications’, published recently in a national daily. Dr Taj is an academic at the University of Oslo, but more importantly, she comes from the region and has a degree of access to tribal Pakhtuns that is rare.

    Over the last couple of years, the air has been thick with charges that the US drone campaign is ‘counter-productive’ as it is supposed to have caused the death of many non-combatants. The Pakistani government has lodged numerous protests with the Americans over the collateral damage their attacks have caused, and how they are destabilising the Zardari administration. The hypocrisy inherent in these protests is little short of breathtaking, considering that many of these remote controlled aircraft are said to operate from runways located in Pakistan.

    However, as Dr Taj explains in her important article, ordinary people in Fata are delighted that at least somebody is killing the ruthless thugs who have seized control of their villages and their lives. She says that Pakistani and US media have tossed around the figure of ‘600-700 civilian casualties’ without citing any evidence.

    According to Dr Taj, “…after every attack the terrorists cordon off the area and no one, including the local villagers, are allowed to come even near the targeted place. The militants themselves collect the bodies, bury the dead and then issue the statement that all of them were innocent civilians.”

    Dr Taj goes on to explain that the only civilians who have been killed are the family members of the militants in whose houses other terrorists have gathered. In effect, these killers are using these women and children as human shields, hoping their presence will deter drone attacks. In any case, it is impossible to make even a rough estimate of how many civilians have been killed in the drone campaign.

    The writer goes on to say: “The people of Waziristan are suffering a brutal kind of occupation under the Taliban and Al Qaeda. It is in this context that they would welcome anyone, Americans, Israelis, Indians or even the devil, to rid them of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Therefore, they welcome the drone attacks. Secondly, the people feel comfortable with the drone attacks because of their precision and targeted strikes. [People prefer them to] the Pakistan Army’s attacks which always result in collateral damage.…”

    Dr Taj makes perfect sense: after all, why would the people under Taliban and Al Qaeda occupation and oppression not cheer when these murderers are killed? What does not make sense is the chorus of protests over these drone attacks emanating from people like Imran Khan and Hamid Gul — to name only two — who claim to speak for the people of the tribal areas. What exactly is their agenda, and why are they acting as cheerleaders for these terrorists?

    The breach of our supposedly sacred sovereignty has been cited as the reason for this outrage over the American campaign of targeting terrorists seeking shelter in the tribal areas, and attacking western forces over the border in Afghanistan. However, why should the Americans wait passively for their soldiers to be picked off by militants who use our territory as a base for cross-border attacks?

    With the concept of sovereignty comes the responsibility to exercise control over territory. Successive Pakistani governments have failed to seal our borders, and the entire region is suffering from terrorism as a result. All our neighbours have complained publicly and privately over the Pakistani state’s inability or unwillingness to effectively prevent cross-border attacks of the kind we have been witnessing for over two decades now. Indeed, we have been accused of using our lawless borders to further our establishment’s agenda.

    In any case, sovereignty is never absolute. Just as nations have the duty to prevent effluents from their factories from contaminating rivers that flow down to lower riparian neighbours, so too do they have the responsibility of halting terrorists from crossing into other states.

    Dr Taj concludes her article thus: “Moreover, Al Qaeda and the Taliban have done everything to stop the drone attacks by killing hundreds of innocent civilians on the pretext of their being American spies. They thought that by overwhelming the innocent people of Waziristan with terror tactics they would deter any potential informer, but they have failed…. Interestingly, no one in Pakistan has raised objections to killings [sic] of the people of Waziristan on charges of spying for the US. This, the people of Waziristan informed, is a source of torture for them that their fellow Pakistanis condemn the killing of terrorists, but fall into deadly silence over the routine murders of tribesmen.…”

    I have often wondered about this callous hypocrisy too. If we condemn the Americans so vociferously over the drone campaign, should we not be more critical of the thugs who are killing far more Pakistani civilians? And yet, it seems that our more popular Urdu anchorpersons and TV chat show guests reserve their outrage for Washington, while giving the Taliban and Al Qaeda a free pass over their vicious suicide bombings that have taken hundreds of innocent lives in recent weeks.

    Why then are we silent over the daily killings of fellow Pakistanis by the TTP and other terror groups, while frothing at the mouth over the drone attacks? Clearly, this irrational and double-faced reaction is based in the anti-American sentiment that has taken root in Pakistan.

    However, if we are to win the war against extremism, we need to analyse where our best interests lie. First we need to face the fact that the war is not going well. Even though the army has cleared most of South Waziristan of the TTP, it does not have the manpower to both hold the area it has wrested from the terrorists, and to take them on in the other regions they have fled to.

    We need to wake up to the reality that the enemy has grown very strong in the years we temporised and tried to do deals with them. Clearly, we need allies in this fight. Howling at the moon is not going to get us the cooperation we so desperately need. A solid case can be made for more drone attacks, not less.

    [email protected]

    =================

    Pakistan: in defence of drones
    Jan 9, 2010 18:05 EST
    Pakistan: in defence of drones | Analysis & Opinion | Reuters
    tribesmenDawn columnist Irfan Husain has drawn attention to a fairly revolutionary article by Pakistani academic Farhat Taj in defence of drone attacks in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

    By way of introduction, start with what Husain writes in his column:

    “Many of us in the punditry profession are guilty of making generalisations about what is happening in the tribal areas without having visited them in recent times. Thus, when we hear about the anger and outrage supposedly sweeping though the people of Fata over the frequent drone attacks, we tend to accept this as the gospel truth,” he writes.

    “This myth was recently exploded by Farhat Taj in her article ‘Drone attacks: challenging some fabrications’, published recently in a national daily. Dr Taj is an academic at the University of Oslo, but more importantly, she comes from the region and has a degree of access to tribal Pakhtuns that is rare.”

    Here is what Taj had to say in an article in the Daily Times:

    “The people of Waziristan are suffering a brutal kind of occupation under the Taliban and al Qaeda. It is in this context that they would welcome anyone, Americans, Israelis, Indians or even the devil, to rid them of the Taliban and al Qaeda. Therefore, they welcome the drone attacks,” she writes.

    “Secondly, the people feel comfortable with the drones because of their precision and targeted strikes. People usually appreciate drone attacks when they compare it with the Pakistan Army’s attacks, which always result in collateral damage. Especially the people of Waziristan have been terrified by the use of long-range artillery and air strikes of the Pakistan Army and Air Force.”

    The conventional view is that attacks by drones, widely assumed to be run by the CIA but never publicly acknowledged by the United States, are deeply unpopular in Pakistan because they cause civilian casualties and are seen as an invasion of sovereignty.

    But Taj writes that no one is in a position to find out about civilian casualties from drone attacks in places like South Waziristan – the area is off-limits for journalists – and nor are they seen by the people there as an invasion of sovereignty.

    “What we read and hear in the print and electronic media of Pakistan about drone attacks as a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty or resulting in killing innocent civilians is not true so far as the people of Waziristan are concerned. According to them, al Qaeda and the TTP (the Pakistani Taliban) are dead scared of drone attacks and their leadership spends sleepless nights. This is a cause of pleasure for the tormented people of Waziristan.”

    There are other criticisms of drone attacks — that they fuel anti-Americanism in a way which can be counter-productive by undermining U.S. efforts to convince Pakistan and its people to turn against all Islamist militants operating from its territory.

    They remain firmly under U.S. control, raising fears in Pakistan of an escalation that could be damaging to Pakistani interests – for example through an escalation of drone attacks in the tribal areas in revenge for the suicide bomb attack on CIA agents in Afghanistan, or worse an expansion into its restive Baluchistan province, where Washington says the Afghan Taliban led by Mullah Omar are based.

    The secrecy surrounding the drone operations does not help in a country which is already rich in conspiracy theories and where many still prefer to blame the United States/India/Israel for a spate of gun and bomb attacks rather than Islamist militants.

    And there are those who argue that the widespread introduction of any new weapon – as is the case with remote-controlled aircraft armed with powerful missiles – is inherently dangerous in the long-term.

    So the debate about drones is likely to run and run. (Andrew Exum has just put up a post on the subject).

    Taj’s piece, however, whether you agree with her or not, is at least a reminder of how little we know, and understand, about the drone war.
    To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

  • #2
    troung Reply

    "The only civilians who have been killed are the family members of the militants in whose houses other terrorists have gathered, Dr. Farhat Taj writes in her article."

    I've been saying exactly that for three years now. Sleep with dogs, you get fleas. They aren't the only ones though, who've been killed.

    There are others like those whom fawn upon these men in public.

    S-2's WARNING: See a terrorist in FATAville? Run, don't walk, from him as quickly as you can. Terrorists want your home? Fight with everything you have or flee. Your home will be a target for HELLFIRE.

    Terrorists want your daughter? Flee with her in the dead of night for safer areas or fight like a madman for her dignity.
    "This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski
    "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." Lester Bangs

    Comment


    • #3
      It is in the best interests of the potential drone-attack Targets to facilitate the fiction that they are not working.

      Comment


      • #4
        Red Seven Reply

        "It is in the best interests of the potential drone-attack Targets to facilitate the fiction that they are not working."

        That's not the issue.

        Is it in the best interests of an ostensible ally of ours to faciltate the fiction/propaganda offered by our enemy for their domestic Pakistani constituent consumption?

        THERE lies the subterfuge, dissemblance, and duplicity. The taliban's actions are entirely predictable in the context of war. The GoP's actions far less so until you look beneath the surface as Ms. Farhat Taj and Irfan Husain have done.
        Last edited by S2; 16 Jan 10,, 11:06.
        "This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski
        "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." Lester Bangs

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by S-2 View Post
          "It is in the best interests of the potential drone-attack Targets to facilitate the fiction that they are not working."

          That's not the issue.

          Is it in the best interests of an ostensible ally of ours to faciltate the fiction/propaganda offered by our enemy for their domestic Pakistani constituent consumption?

          THERE, lies the subterfuge, dissemblance, and duplicity. The taliban's actions are entirely predictable in the context of war. The GoP's actions far less so until you look beneath the surface as Ms. Farhat Taj and Irfan Husain have done.

          Really is a remarkable article, almost out of left field. I'm sure many are going to suspect and accuse them of being pawns of a US disinformation campaign. Very brave ladies in any case.

          Comment


          • #6
            Don't Forget Farhat Taj

            Husain's column stems from Ms. Farhat Taj's work at AIRRA and her column here-

            Analysis: Drones-Challenging Some Fabrications-Farhat Taj DAILY TIMES

            AIRRA

            and the Univ. of Oslo. She's the basis for this and HER op-ed is the truly scathing condemnation.

            The origins of this stem back a year to a telephone survey of 600 isolated professionals scattered throughout FATA. The survey was near-universally denigrated within Pakistan then and these columns will be dismissed in-country nearly as quick.

            Sad and delusional.

            Kasmir, Irfan Husain is a guy, btw.
            Last edited by S2; 16 Jan 10,, 11:05.
            "This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski
            "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." Lester Bangs

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by S-2 View Post
              Kasmir, Irfan Husain is a guy, btw.
              Yeah, I was sloppy about that should have read more carefully. It's actually your "Ms. Farhat Taj and Irfan Husain" that fooled me ;) since the plural forms of "Ms." ("Mss." and "Mses") are so rarely used I assumed "Ms." qualified both of them...

              Comment


              • #8
                As for drone attacks per se I am not sure of the accuracy, who the 'civilians' are etc... I don't suppose anyone but the people there can know for sure.

                While I support the writers named above and the general aim of their articles my main question is this: Why are the Pakistani people not more vocal? I note that one of writers is in Oslo yet it is claimed he has good contacts in the region... probably does but without being there his evidence is 'hearsay'.

                The basis of this article is written by a Scholar in Oslo. The real question is can he tell the truth only because he's out of the country or is the real sentiment in these regions pro-tribal Talibunny?

                Fact is a guy in Oslo cannot know.

                Comment


                • #9
                  snapper Reply

                  He is a she, snapper. Ms. Farhat Taj is the Univ. of Oslo professor. She is pashtu and spends much time in NWFP among the IDP camps of those displaced from FATA.

                  If you'd actually read her op-ed in the DAILY TIMES you'd seen both her picture and her comments-

                  "...The purpose of today’s column is, one, to challenge the Pakistani and US media reports about the civilian casualties in the drone attacks and, two, to express the view of the people of Waziristan, who are equally terrified by the Taliban and the intelligence agencies of Pakistan. I personally met these people in the Pakhtunkhwa province, where they live as internally displaced persons (IDPs), and in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)."
                  Last edited by S2; 17 Jan 10,, 10:00.
                  "This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski
                  "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." Lester Bangs

                  Comment

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