itshappening
11-10-2012, 06:09 PM
Great article on Imran Khan and includes an example of blowback, his assertion that the drone war is making matters significantly worse:
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If the US officials who dragged Khan off his plane thought they could persuade him to change his mind about drones, they were mistaken. In his view, the strikes, which have so far killed up to 3,500 people, are directly responsible for intensifying the conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
America claims that they are essential, because the Afghan branch of the Taliban uses bases in Pakistan’s tribal areas, such as North and South Waziristan. But according to a report by US experts last month, to date they have ‘taken out’ only 41 ‘high-value’ terrorist targets, and have slaughtered hundreds of civilians, including many children. Khan says this suffering has a political cost: ‘It allows the militants to claim that they are fighting a true jihad, a holy war, and that to join it is a sacred duty.’
He says that without the drones and the series of Pakistani military operations in the same tribal areas that have taken place at America’s behest since 2004, it would be possible to isolate the true fanatics from the ‘maliks’, the traditional tribal leaders. Instead, American and Pakistani policy has played into their hands.
He was brought up in comfortable surroundings in Lahore, but his family’s origins lie in the Pashtun (Pathan) belt along the Afghan border. Khan’s grasp of the Pashtun doctrine of ‘badal’ (revenge) comes from his genes: ‘Even in my family, I remember vendettas going back 50 years.’
America not only wants the drone strikes to continue: it is urging Pakistan to launch a new army operation in North Waziristan, claiming that the Haqqani network – one of the deadliest pro-Taliban forces operating in Afghanistan – is based there.
Yet the legacy of previous such operations has been bloody, says Khan: an onslaught by the Pakistani branch of the Taliban in the country’s major cities has been woefully under-reported in the world’s press. About 40,000 people have been killed since 2004
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2230965/Imran-Khan-Can-millionaire-ex-cricket-star-playboy-prime-minister-Yes-Khan.html#ixzz2Brso4jTj
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If the US officials who dragged Khan off his plane thought they could persuade him to change his mind about drones, they were mistaken. In his view, the strikes, which have so far killed up to 3,500 people, are directly responsible for intensifying the conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
America claims that they are essential, because the Afghan branch of the Taliban uses bases in Pakistan’s tribal areas, such as North and South Waziristan. But according to a report by US experts last month, to date they have ‘taken out’ only 41 ‘high-value’ terrorist targets, and have slaughtered hundreds of civilians, including many children. Khan says this suffering has a political cost: ‘It allows the militants to claim that they are fighting a true jihad, a holy war, and that to join it is a sacred duty.’
He says that without the drones and the series of Pakistani military operations in the same tribal areas that have taken place at America’s behest since 2004, it would be possible to isolate the true fanatics from the ‘maliks’, the traditional tribal leaders. Instead, American and Pakistani policy has played into their hands.
He was brought up in comfortable surroundings in Lahore, but his family’s origins lie in the Pashtun (Pathan) belt along the Afghan border. Khan’s grasp of the Pashtun doctrine of ‘badal’ (revenge) comes from his genes: ‘Even in my family, I remember vendettas going back 50 years.’
America not only wants the drone strikes to continue: it is urging Pakistan to launch a new army operation in North Waziristan, claiming that the Haqqani network – one of the deadliest pro-Taliban forces operating in Afghanistan – is based there.
Yet the legacy of previous such operations has been bloody, says Khan: an onslaught by the Pakistani branch of the Taliban in the country’s major cities has been woefully under-reported in the world’s press. About 40,000 people have been killed since 2004
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2230965/Imran-Khan-Can-millionaire-ex-cricket-star-playboy-prime-minister-Yes-Khan.html#ixzz2Brso4jTj