[Peace-discuss] President orders missile attacks

[E. Wayne Johnson]

Imagine what how much our people here at home could be helped if we were 
not wasting away so much in resources
pursing such ridiculous efforts.

C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> [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.
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