[Peace-discuss] President orders missile attacks

[John W.]

On Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 11:53 AM, E. Wayne Johnson <ewj at pigs.ag> wrote:

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.


Yes, we could help even MORE Wall Street bankers.  The imagination it doth
mind-blogging.



> 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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