A large number of people were killed this Wednesday with a "New Year's gift" air-attack carried out by remote controlled robot aircraft (drones) launched by the US against Pakistan. The bombings were executed in the "new style" of operations that was taught to the world by the Israeli invasion army during the slaughter it had carried out against Gaza last year: a location is first struck causing death and injuries, and then some time is allowed for people to gather on the spot hoping to dig out the survivors, assist the injured and collect the dead. An hour later, as the rescue operations unfold the location is bombed again, killing and injuring anyone there.
Al Jazeera reported "...there was the first strike by the drone in which six people were killed. Immediately after that people went to the rescue and as the rescue efforts were still underway the second strike took place, causing the death toll to rise...":
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/01/20101613294018697.html
Wednesday's attack is only one of a long string of air-bombing strikes by the US engaged in an illegal war against Pakistan that was never declared. Even the BBC tackle this obstacle in order to report on the news, and therefore reported "The US military routinely does not confirm drone attacks but the armed forces and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operating in Afghanistan are believed to be the only forces capable of deploying drones in the region."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7975871.stm
The Long War Journal (a non-profit information and media arm of the Empire, closely intertwined with the Pentagon and military intelligence sources), reports that the US has bombed Pakistan from the air on the average once a week in 2009, almost double the number of attacks from the year 2008. (Please click on the images for a larger version.)Deaths and injuries of civilians caused by these raids are tremendous. In April of 2009 "The News International", published in Pakistan reported: "Of the 60 cross-border predator strikes carried out by the Afghanistan-based American drones in Pakistan between January 14, 2006 and April 8, 2009, only 10 were able to hit their actual targets, killing 14 wanted al-Qaeda leaders, besides perishing 687 innocent Pakistani civilians. The success percentage of the US predator strikes thus comes to not more than six per cent."
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=21440
The Government of Pakistan seems to be implicated by having at least some complicity in the attacks, or at least that is what the United States claims. Even Reuters, in an effort to justify these acts of war against Pakistan, concedes that "Missiles fired from a U.S. drone at militants after a funeral for a Taliban commander in South Waziristan near the Afghan border killed about 70 insurgents on Tuesday, Pakistani intelligence officials said. Civilian casualties caused by the missile-carrying, pilotless drones, operated by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, have infuriated many Pakistanis and made it harder for the government to cooperate with the United States."
All of the Imperialist media are engaged in an operation to either under-report these illegal actions by the US, or to create a climate in which they seem "natural". That was the aim of the Reuters news item from which the above quote is taken. Please read the rest here:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL468987.htm
Meanwhile, more and more people in Pakistan are being drawn into the conflict, as patriots, socialists, anti-imperialists and religious people are becoming more and more polarized toward a stance of anti-american hostility. That is the significance of Al Jazeera's usage of the phrase "opposition fighters" instead of calling them "terrorists" or "al-Qaeda operatives" in the above quoted article. In other words, the over-simplified and imaginary world of black and white, good and bad, etc. that is being painted by US propaganda is collapsing in the eyes of the people who live in the region, especially as they find themselves being bombed indiscriminately and illegally in an undeclared war that was initiated by George Bush and now being escalated by the "Peace Candidate" and now President of the US, Obama.
Within the United States opposition to the bombing of Pakistan is nearly zero. Even while the majority of the US population opposes the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, the Peace movement has become less and less active in recent years. Knowledge about the weekly bombings of Pakistan is very rare, and even among the few who know about them, hardly any are actively engaged to stop the attacks.
A notable exception is Father Louie Vitale, a former US Air Force navigator who is now a monk and Peace activist plus a few other companions, who have been protesting together against the remote controlled death-by-robot attacks that the US is carrying out in the Middle East and SouthWestern Asia:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/04/the-drones-cant/
Western media have created an image of the Pakistani people that is characterized by a supposed religious fanaticism, presenting them as a people drunk on "death to America" type of slogans (which are of course entirely justified as the unprovoked US bombings against Pakistan continue). But the propaganda painting the Pakistani people as backwards religious fanatics affects almost everyone, blinding us to the reality of a country that is comprised of millions of Peace loving people. Who could know nowadays that the Pakistani people - especially the religious people - are on the whole a very modest and quietly dignified community engaged in life-affirming hard work?
Even the few provocateurs who try to use religion to stir up hatred in Pakistan find very little response, while spiritually motivated Muslim activists identify them and neutralize their ideology. Consider for example the impact of US bombings against the Pakistani people, to the message of love from Muslim Peace activist S.A.Rehman, here:
"Islam is a Religion of Peace"
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2010/01/islam-is-religion-of-peace.html
It's a whole other universe of values: Death by Robot, or Universal Love?
Petros Evdokas, petros@cyprus-org.net
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