I recently posted about borders here. I find borders fascinating, and challenging, and limiting, and at the same time alltogether necessary for international peace. That is to say, until we achieve cultural acceptance, physical borders are helpful in knowing who is friend and who to avoid.
That said, I felt it necessary to spotlight today those who pay no heed to borders. In the CIA drone program there is no regard for friend or ally when it comes to a criminal’s country of origin. A target is a target. I do not mean to insinuate that Mehsud should have been spared (although I do have feelings about the death penalty that perhaps at a later date I will discuss). What I would like to emphasize, however, is that Pakistan as a country is not a threat to the US.
Despite this, innocent Pakistanis have suffered death for the sake of killing a handful of Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives:
“CIA director Leon Panetta told an audience last May that the drones were “the only game in town in terms of confronting or trying to disrupt the Al Qaeda leadership.” But the New America study contends that the terror group’s chieftains make up just a tiny percentage of the unmanned aircraft’s victims. “Since 2006, our analysis indicates, 82 U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan have killed between 750 and 1,000 people. Among them were about 20 leaders of Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and allied groups, all of whom have been killed since January 2008.” The rest have been footsoldiers in the militant organizations, or civilians. In addition, the program is secret.” Source: here.
I think drones are cool–and perhaps it is our downfall that many of us think that. How amazing that a plane can be flown around Pakistan, operated by someone in Nevada?! The engineering of the whole thing is truly remarkable.
What is not “cool” is the way these drones are utilized in a border-less fight. And the list of targets is a secret. And the targets are few, while the casualties are many.
How is it that the FBI has a public “most wanted list,” and the US Military has a public list of people that should be killed on sight, but the CIA’s list of people that will be targeted by drones is hidden behind a great black curtain? How does one get on such a list? How does one get off such a list? How would I know that I am not fraternizing with a person on the list?
(Personally, if I were Mahsud’s family and I knew that he was on the list, I would probably stop inviting him to family functions).
All I want to point out today is the fact that our battleground has shifted–not only is it borderless, but it is also nationless. The fight has become agency against individual, and ideal against ideology. And this shift has created casualties.
And that is not ok.
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