[Peace-discuss] President orders missile attacks

[C. G. Estabrook]

[If we accept the US/Israel justification for attacks on Gaza (self-defense 
against missiles), this alone would seem to justify the deaths of several 
thousand Americans -- another 9/11.  If we abandon that monstrous calculus we 
may begin to discuss what the USG is doing -- and has been for some time: not 
"fighting terrorism," as Obama says, but killing people to enforce its control 
of the Middle East.  --CGE]

	From Times (UK) Online
	January 23, 2009
	President Obama 'orders Pakistan drone attacks'
	Tim Reid in Washington

Missiles fired from suspected US drones killed at least 15 people inside 
Pakistan today, the first such strikes since Barack Obama became president and a 
clear sign that the controversial military policy begun by George W Bush has not 
changed.

Security officials said the strikes, which saw up to five missiles slam into 
houses in separate villages, killed seven "foreigners" - a term that usually 
means al-Qaeda - but locals also said that three children lost their lives.

Dozens of similar strikes since August on northwest Pakistan, a hotbed of 
Taleban and al-Qaeda militancy, have sparked angry government criticism of the 
US, which is targeting the area with missiles launched from unmanned CIA 
aircraft controlled from operation rooms inside the US.

The operations were stepped up last year after frustration inside the Bush 
administration over a perceived failure by Islamabad to stem the flow of Taleban 
and al-Qaeda fighters from the tribal regions into Afghanistan. Mr Obama has 
made Afghanistan his top foreign policy priority and said during his 
presidential campaign that he would consider military action inside Pakistan if 
the government there was unable or unwilling to take on the militants.

The strikes come just a day after Mr Obama appointed Richard Holbrooke, a former 
UN ambassador, as a special envoy for the region.

Eight people died when missiles hit a compound near Mir Ali, an al-Qaeda hub in 
Pakistan's North Waziristan region. Seven more died when hours later two 
missiles hit a house in Wana, in South Waziristan. Local officials said the 
target in Wana was a guest house owned by a pro-Taleban tribesman. One said that 
as well as three children, the tribesman's relatives were killed in the blast.

Pakistan has objected to such attacks, saying they are a violation of its 
territory that undermines its efforts to tackle militants. Since September, the 
US is estimated to have carried out about 30 such attacks, killing more than 220 
people.