[Peace-discuss] Stopping Pakistan Drone Strikes Suddenly Plausible

[Robert Naiman]

Until this week, it seemed like the conventional wisdom in Washington
was that stopping U.S drone strikes in Pakistan was outside the bounds
of respectable discussion.

That just changed. Or it should have.

Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Doyle McManus notes that
counterinsurgency guru David Kilcullen has told Congress that U.S.
drone strikes in Pakistan are backfiring and should be stopped. Until
now Congress has been reluctant to challenge the drone strikes, as
they are reluctant in general to challenge "military strategy," even
when it appears to be causing terrible harm. But as McManus notes,
Kilcullen has unimpeachable Pentagon credentials. He served as a top
advisor in Iraq to General Petraeus on counterinsurgency, and is
credited as having helped design the Iraq "surge." Now, anyone in
Washington who wants to challenge the drone strikes has all the
political cover they could reasonably expect.

And what Kilcullen said leaves very little room for creative misinterpretation.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/stopping-pakistan-drone-s_b_196204.html

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/05

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/5/5/1394/27752

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/42309

--
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org