Re: Drone kills TTP No.2 | TTP withdraws talk offer
Regardless of who gets killed the whole premise for drone strikes is wrong. For a change we know in this particular case who the victim was. I do not support signature strikes which have taken place between 2010 and 2012, in which we don't even know who was killed.
Re: Drone kills TTP No.2 | TTP withdraws talk offer
Ah I see. Piece of friendly advice, perhaps instead of putting silly effects, you should focus on adding substance in your posts. It may help kill the impression that at least your head isn't buried in sand where it probably wouldn't be known what goes on in the real world. I'm more than happy to post witty one liners if only it could stop you from making highly ignorant, dangerously slavish and war mongering long rants. If only you had any idea how sickening and vile you sound when you call for another decade of violence in the name of Islam (your pathetic 'Islam stands for justice' so lets continue with the war post in some other thread). How about we take that as another similarity between you and the Taliban. Sorry but Taliban and blood thirsty war mongers can go to hell coz Pakistanis have refused to become another Syria!!
Lets try this again and I will take it slow, because comprehension is obviously not your strong point.
The govt has tried to make peace in the past, and it has not worked. It has only allowed the Taliban to recoup their losses, rearm and reorganize. Each time, the Taliban has gotten stronger and its been more difficult to dislodge them.
The Taliban have said they do not recognize the govt, the constitution, or the writ of the state, and thy will not disarm. They are NOT sincere and this has been proven over and over again.
By negotiating with them, you are ignoring ALL the crimes they have committed. If you had any decency, even an ounce of respect for the victims of these animals, you will bring them to justice, not reward these murderers with peace overtures.
This isnt war mongering, this is acknowledgement of REALITY! You cannot negotiate with people who have never demonstrated any sincerity in the past. You stupidly believe that repeating the same mistakes made in the past will make a difference this time, even though you are negotiating with the SAME EXACT PEOPLE. Not only are ignoring reality, you are also putting the very people you claim to be speaking for in danger, because as evident from past experience, the Taliban have used such peace overtures to gain strnegth and have posed an even greater threat then before. By not fighting these people, the Pakistani state is prolonging the misery of her people by engaging in futile dialogue with an enemy who has no intention of laying down arms.
Now I challenge you to prove that this time will be different, say something even remotely substantive. No fake sentiment, If you cant prove whatever weak sauce point your making, then keep your mouth shut and let the adults talk. There is no comparison between Syria and pakistan, except in your mind. Goes to show what little you know of Pakistan.
Re: Drone kills TTP No.2 | TTP withdraws talk offer
Alright, I am opening this thread. I might have missed some objectionable comments so team point those out to me.
Lets not get personal in the heat of an argument.
Re: Drone kills TTP No.2 | TTP withdraws talk offer
Lets try this again and I will take it slow, because comprehension is obviously not your strong point.
The govt has tried to make peace in the past, and it has not worked. It has only allowed the Taliban to recoup their losses, rearm and reorganize. Each time, the Taliban has gotten stronger and its been more difficult to dislodge them.
The Taliban have said they do not recognize the govt, the constitution, or the writ of the state, and thy will not disarm. They are NOT sincere and this has been proven over and over again.
By negotiating with them, you are ignoring ALL the crimes they have committed. If you had any decency, even an ounce of respect for the victims of these animals, you will bring them to justice, not reward these murderers with peace overtures.
This isnt war mongering, this is acknowledgement of REALITY! You cannot negotiate with people who have never demonstrated any sincerity in the past. You stupidly believe that repeating the same mistakes made in the past will make a difference this time, even though you are negotiating with the SAME EXACT PEOPLE. Not only are ignoring reality, you are also putting the very people you claim to be speaking for in danger, because as evident from past experience, the Taliban have used such peace overtures to gain strnegth and have posed an even greater threat then before. By not fighting these people, the Pakistani state is prolonging the misery of her people by engaging in futile dialogue with an enemy who has no intention of laying down arms.
Now I challenge you to prove that this time will be different, say something even remotely substantive. No fake sentiment, If you cant prove whatever weak sauce point your making, then keep your mouth shut and let the adults talk. There is no comparison between Syria and pakistan, except in your mind. Goes to show what little you know of Pakistan.
How about you prove that comprehension is your strongest point by reading the above posts before making another same old frustrated reply? I've given you more than enough reasons why peace deals will be different this time, its everyone else to see. In the meantime, you can read those posts again and again and again and also try to keep your mouth shut while the mods teach you how you talk to adults next time.
Adults will continue talking in this thread thank you very much, but do let us know when you had enough of arguing for sake of arguing.
I have zero interest to read your war mongering rhetoric. Replying to your paranoid and extremely radical views is getting increasingly embarrassing and meaningless. So please spare me all that torture and only post if you have anything remotely logical to say.
Re: Drone kills TTP No.2 | TTP withdraws talk offer
How about you prove that comprehension is your strongest point by reading the above posts before making another same old frustrated reply? I've given you more than enough reasons why peace deals will be different this time, its everyone else to see. In the meantime, you can read those posts again and again and again and also try to keep your mouth shut while the mods teach you how you talk to adults next time.
Adults will continue talking in this thread thank you very much, but do let us know when you had enough of arguing for sake of arguing.
I have zero interest to read your war mongering rhetoric. Replying to your paranoid and extremely radical views is getting increasingly embarrassing and meaningless. So please spare me all that torture and only post if you have anything remotely logical to say.
Ok so your strongest argument is an ad hominem attack. I went through your rant, and realized you are clueless and truly not intelligent enough to debate. but I will respond to your uninformed and juvenille understanding of the situation in the following post. For the future, i would suggest you educate yourself before imposing yourself on an issue that you barely understand.
I can tell you this much, go around the internet. Look to the opinions of people who actually have insight. The consensus among actual intelligent people, journalists, researchers etc, is that TTP cant be negotiated with. So I dont see why anyone other then those with an inherent bias against anything and everything western and in favor of anything spouted from the mouth of an extremist like you as mana from heaven, would possibly believe that be negotiations are GOOD idea.
paranoid is someone who bases their conclusions on zero EVIDENCE. I among others with a functioning right hemisphere, look to past indicators to gauge future outcomes... This how we humans analyze the world. You look to the past to determine the best course for the future. Its how we evolved and survived, but with the exception of certain stupider apes among us who's genes somehow managed to sneak their way into modern times (im not pointing in your direction, but...)
Re: Drone kills TTP No.2 | TTP withdraws talk offer
Here is a concise reponse to each of your “points.” If this isnt enough for you to learn to keep silent and only speak when spoken too, well then I cant help you… I really dont have the time to be wasting on you, and I took some time out to respond to you, so read carefully, take a deep breath, calm down and think.
im going to ignore the first half of your rant as its just another exhibition of your immaturity. Lets examine ur “facts” Mr Taliban expert…
Its a known fact that Pakistan will NOT be negotiating with all types of Taliban
Pakistan is negotiating with the TTP. the very same group that refuses to disarm and refuses to recognize the govt or its writ, or the constitution.
Here you see, Sharif advises govt to negotiate with the TTP. Nawaz advises govt to immediately start peace talks with TTP – The Express Tribune
**Its a fact that Taliban are dividing into so many groups and sub groups each having different goals and way of operating **
The TTP is an umbrella group of many different smaller groups all with basically the same anti govt agenda, which is why they formed one group! Surprise!
Pakistan wants to negotiate with the TTP, composed entirely of anti govt factions. The TTP is the largest militant group and the primary source of most of the countries headache.
3.Its a fact that certain groups of Taliban can indeed be defeated without the use of violence.
Really? Which ones. Because the group Pakistan wants to negotiate with is one that has on every occasion shown that they will not be defeated but through violence. Remember how the other peace accords failed?
4.** It s a fact that certain groups of Taliban have made it known that they are willing to disarm and recognize Pakistan’s government and abide by peace terms.**
Yeah ok genius.. The issue isnt with THOSE groups. The issue here is with the TTP which does NOT want to disarm or recognize the govt or abide by peace terms.. The Pakistan govt is looking to negotiate with the TTP, and thus is inexcusable.
6**.Its a fact that Pakistan is only negotiating with rogue elements within Taliban camp only to weaken and destroy the entire network instead of empowering them the whole entity.**
Wow, brilliant strategy. Except that there is no evidence to indicate that this is the actual strategy. And even if it is, the past hsitory of failed peace initiatives should be enough for them to realize that instead of weakening the Taliban, they will only embolden them further. So its far from a fact, and if it is, its short sighted and based on nothing more then wishful thinking and weak assumptions, completely contradicted by past failures.
Also, unlike NATO, for whom negotiations are a first, for Pakistan there is ample precedence of failed peace with the TTP. Yet you think they should give it another shot!
9.** If there are Taliban in Karachi, well I suggest you go ahead and open a thread calling for drone attacks there along with heavy tanks, troops and fighter jets to be deployed in the city. Lets see how many Karachittes support another military operation in their city.**
You missed the point bright eyes… 
Trying reading slower.
My point was that the Taliban are and have to some extent infiltrated areas well beyond FATA. Meaning, if you dont take care of them , they are going to spread as they have into Karachi. Its not a matter of how we will control them in Karachi, its that they are IN Karachi and not solely in FATA.
10.What influence of Taliban are you talking about? Didn’t we just had a first ever peaceful democratic transition of power?
Are u kidding me? 3 of the main parties had to curtail all electioneering out of fear of Taliban attack, and you call that fair and just? This was the most violent election in Pakistan’s history thanks to the TTP, and your calling that peaceful?
These things u mentioned have nothing to do with the Taliban, they have to do with an awam that is desperate for change, after a near complete economic collapse and unprecedented misery. The influence on Taliban i refer to is through their use of violence on politicans, the media and the general public. When the secular parties are to afraid to hold mass rallies, that is an example of the Talibans disproportionate influence. When imran Khan said he had to be careful in his criticsm for fear of harm being inflictedon his party workers, that is influence of the Taliban. When the media is to afraid of threats to ever condemn Taliban openly, that is their influence.. Get it now?
12.** But the question should be, don’t you get tired of making same old pathetic doom and gloom posts or internet trolling is just getting lot more sophisticated these days?**
Well, the truth isnt pleasant is it… People like you who arent very well informed yet are to arrogant to admit it would assume that anyone spouting truth is a troll…
If only your intellect were as robust as your ego, I wouldn’t have to waste so much time schooling your ill formed arse.
Re: Drone kills TTP No.2 | TTP withdraws talk offer
if they TTP are our enemies, our government and military forces should take on them.
The confusion is created by the government itself. If they are supporting the drone program, they should own it as well. By publicly issuing statements against drones, the impression given out to the people is that Americans are interfering in our internal affairs.
As far as I am concerned, I have a bit of idea as to what's going on, but I'll again reiterate that the government and military has not marketed this war among the people. So who should we blame for this, the people?
Im all for the Govt doing their job, but they dont. N waziristan is the last untouched bastion of these terrorists, but they wont go in there.
The drones are the only things that are doing the job the govt and army arent.
Plus, consider that if your primary concern is civilian casualties, and it should be, then would an all out war be any less devastating to civilians then the drones? If anything, the drones are a safer alternative to an all out war in which civilians are more likely to be killed not less.
Peace would be great, but if the TTP are unwilling to disarm, its futile, and past has shown that they arent willing to abide by any agreement. Not to mention the fact that its morally unjustifiable to negotiate with a group that by admission has killed countless Paksitanis. It really is an insult to their victims and their families. Are the lives of Paksitanis so cheap? Did Sharif who is so anxious to talk with these killers spare a moment of thought for those killed by these lunatics, are their sacrafices not worthy of even a moment of silence. Its rather pathetic. Im amazed how shameless these people asking for peace with murderers truly are. Its disgusting.
And what sort of message does it send...Kill as many of our citizens as you like, just don't do it again please!
**... But if they desist, then let there be no hostility except against wrongdoers."
Here is the TTP desisting:
**“We proudly claim responsibility for Thursday’s blast in Quetta and the target was local police..."
Re: Drone kills TTP No.2 | TTP withdraws talk offer
Ok so your strongest argument is an ad hominem attack. I went through your rant, and realized you are clueless and truly not intelligent enough to debate. but I will respond to your uninformed and juvenille understanding of the situation in the following post. For the future, i would suggest you educate yourself before imposing yourself on an issue that you barely understand.
I can tell you this much, go around the internet. Look to the opinions of people who actually have insight. The consensus among actual intelligent people, journalists, researchers etc, is that TTP cant be negotiated with. So I dont see why anyone other then those with an inherent bias against anything and everything western and in favor of anything spouted from the mouth of an extremist like you as mana from heaven, would possibly believe that be negotiations are GOOD idea.
paranoid is someone who bases their conclusions on zero EVIDENCE. I among others with a functioning right hemisphere, look to past indicators to gauge future outcomes... This how we humans analyze the world. You look to the past to determine the best course for the future. Its how we evolved and survived, but with the exception of certain stupider apes among us who's genes somehow managed to sneak their way into modern times (im not pointing in your direction, but...)
hahaha if only elections were fought on internet or national policies were formed by reading online comments.
You are getting so desperate and insecure and I'm just beginning to feel sorry for you. Control your verbal diarrhea or honestly stop making these monstrously annoying posts to please your ego. Its okay, take a deep breath, its just an online forum. Everything will be alright just sip some cold water. I honestly don't give a rat ass you are an intelligent ape or a dumb human, whatever you were rambling there. Your increasingly frustrated and desperate posts are enough to paint you as an overly excited individual who cannot be reasoned with.
Oh please stop this desperate self praise. I couldn't care less about what dim wit war mongers NRPs think on an online forums. Its about what people of Pakistan living in Pakistan think, its about what government of Pakistan think, its about what military of Pakistan thinks, its about what intelligence services of Pakistan. Last time I checked, Noon league is getting increasingly popular and well received within Pakistani media.No way their peace policies has met with a criticism that Imran had to face five years ago. People of Pakistan want peace from Boluchistan to KPK, from Karachi to Multan.
If your obsession with ruthless violence, support for the death of innocent lives makes you an intelligent "human", then good for you! Happy war mongering on an internet forum, hoping gen Kiyani might stumble across your post and may change the course of a global strategy.
Re: Drone kills TTP No.2 | TTP withdraws talk offer
hahaha if only elections were fought on internet or national policies were formed by reading online comments.
You are getting so desperate and insecure and I'm just beginning to feel sorry for you. Control your verbal diarrhea or honestly stop making these monstrously annoying posts to please your ego. Its okay, take a deep breath, its just an online forum. Everything will be alright just sip some cold water. I honestly don't give a rat ass you are an intelligent ape or a dumb human, whatever you were rambling there. Your increasingly frustrated and desperate posts are enough to paint you as an overly excited individual who cannot be reasoned with.
Oh please stop this desperate self praise. I couldn't care less about what dim wit war mongers NRPs think on an online forums. Its about what people of Pakistan living in Pakistan think, its about what government of Pakistan think, its about what military of Pakistan thinks, its about what intelligence services of Pakistan. Last time I checked, Noon league is getting increasingly popular and well received within Pakistani media.No way their peace policies has met with a criticism that Imran had to face five years ago. People of Pakistan want peace from Boluchistan to KPK, from Karachi to Multan.
If your obsession with ruthless violence, support for the death of innocent lives makes you an intelligent "human", then good for you! Happy war mongering on an internet forum, hoping gen Kiyani might stumble across your post and may change the course of a global strategy.
Anyways, it was fun meeting you and getting reacquainted with stupid. i had almost forgotten there were people like you around! Thanks for the opportunity. You can continue wallowing in ignorance with the rest of your kind, I have more important things to do.
LOL.. Im desperate for what? Honestly, do you really think your opinion is that important to me?
Re: Drone kills TTP No.2 | TTP withdraws talk offer
You think I have the time to waste reading you rants? I honestly don’t give a hoot about what you write. If you have any self respect, you might just shut you up because the person you are trying to speak has zero interest in listening to you paranoid beliefs. But considering how seriously you take this your online life, we may never see the end of your rambling because you must win an online battle. Right?
How sad of you try to “silent” people on an online forum and preaching about when speak only when they are spoken to. LOL What? How old are you? Are you new to internet? How pathetic of you to police an internet forum and treat it like a class room. Kiddo its an online forum, if you don’t like what’s being written here, get the hell out of this thread! Who are you tell people when or what they should post? Who is even asking you to post here? Thank you very much keep your Mullah style preaching to yourself.
Re: Drone kills TTP No.2 | TTP withdraws talk offer
[quote=“Med911, post:63, topic:283043”]
Fortunately, even within TTP there are groups and individuals who can be bought.
Not all of them have same agenda. Some have secretly made it known that they are willing to recognize the government and sign ceasefire with it.
Certainly the group that mainly look for support and sympathy from the tribal leaders.
The peace terms, conditions and methods haven’t even finalised yet and they are far from being officially launched. The COAS and PM are yet to meet over this issue. Therefore depending on whatever outcome of that meeting and information sharing, Pakistan may or may not negotiate with TTP but continue distracting much smaller and lesser evil groups. But one this sure, army is going ahead with peace, which groups they make peace with or how they go on about these talks is yet to be decided.
This ties in with the previous point.
Of course there is evidence if one has the ability to see. Senior PMLN members are all over the media announcing their party policies. Have an attempt at doing some proper research.
.
Peace process will go through a process itself. Not all aims will be achieved in one day. The main aim is to sign a ceasefire so there is an immediate stop of all forms of violence. Once the violence has stopped, disarming them and stopping their arms supply would be the next challenge. The first and foremost aim is to stop the violence and killing of the innocent civilians.
Also, unlike NATO, for whom negotiations are a first, for Pakistan there is ample precedence of failed peace with the TTP. Yet you think they should give it another shot!
Yes the army is certainly smarter than two bit internet Islamist war mongers therefore do not want a war. This is why they have been working so hard and closely with tribal leaders to have them on their side and they have already succeeded. No way they are willing to let go of FATA and lose a hard earned support from the tribal leaders.
Wish your eyes were also as bright as mine. If they are already in Karachi and spreading onwards, how do you deal with them?
LOL…There was Taliban threat and then there was pure politically motivated violence, something Karachi is historically known for. You need to do bit more research about militant wings of all three Karachi parties and how they operate in that city. If only things were as black and white as your innocent young mind seens.
Those groups obviously needs to be taken care of.
The same hypocrite who was whining about online manners and crying to mods? Start with schooling your frustrated, ill informed and deluded self then come back on an online forum to boast about your non existent intellect. Boasting about schooling people on internet, how sad is your life? Someone’s ego certainly get a little boost.
Re: Drone kills TTP No.2 | TTP withdraws talk offer
With that i will leave you, and let you have to last word. If i wanted to engage with a child, I would have called me nephew.
O yes, and dont worry I dont believe in silencing people. please, speak, louder. Im sure someone cares what you think somewhere!
But im willing to bet in a few months perhaps, when this whole peace with terrorists thing explodes in everyone’s face (literally), you will still be here playing the same tired games. I wont rub it in your face though, i will let harsh reality slap you around a bit instead.
Salam.
Re: Drone kills TTP No.2 | TTP withdraws talk offer
Please read this excellent article by this talented young guy before you advocate the merits of drones so blindly.. very well written..
The killing skies - Zaair Hussain
The writer is a freelance contributor.
“There’s no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders.” (The president of the United States, November 18 2012)
Well said, President Obama.
I have heard ad nauseam about the complexity of the drone strikes issue. I must confess my lack of sophistication; I have searched for nuance and found only concerted attempts at confusion. I have also found reports of a truly frightening number of Pakistani civilians and children. The drones found them first.
Who will win the war on terror? The answer is obscured by the fog of war, but I can tell you that Pakistan will lose. We lose every day. We are targets and collateral damage. ‘Infidels’ and ‘legitimate strike zones’. We are attacked for helping the US, and attacked for not helping the US sufficiently.
There is nothing I can say to the Taliban, because it is futile to reason with them. But the United States?
We are told that all wars have civilian casualties and that drones are the most efficient way forward.
Is the US at war with Pakistan? If so then indeed: I thank them for their restraint, for not setting up concentration camps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Japanese Americans in WWII), for not using Napalm airstrikes (Vietnam) and for not leaving 100,000 dead in a conflict to find fictional WMDs (Iraq).
But if they are not, then there is no merit to this assumption that they will and must and can kill our civilians, and should be patted on the back for not killing more.
The low number of civilian deaths reported from the US has less to do with Tony Stark levels of accuracy with deadly weapons and far more to do with arithmetic gymnastics. A New York Times article from last year indicates that Obama’s method of counting civilian deaths classifies all military age males in a strike zone as combatants unless posthumously proven otherwise.
There have been terrorist cells and plots discovered in cities across the UK, the rest of Europe and the United States itself. These terrorists indubitably had as their end goal the death of American civilians. And yet, surely there is no debate within US high command as to whether a drone strike in the general area is a plausible response. Because that would be insane.
And shifting the backdrop to Pakistan does not make it less insane.
I find little merit in the ‘value’ of high-value targets when weighed against our losses. The revolving door position of the ‘Number 2 man of (insert terrorist organisation here)’ has become a morbid joke. If the US awards itself points for every second in command they kill, it is little wonder they are pleased with this disaster. One would think they had learned about the error of using conventional scoreboards in unconventional warfare after their ‘great victory’ (going by body count) in Vietnam.
Clearly, killing a seemingly endless roster of ‘number 2 men’ – and the drone strikes in general – have not brought the US closer to victory. Against guerrillas, who have no white flags to raise and no territory to conquer, the only marker of ‘victory’ would be to shatter their capacity for violence; once the Taliban can no longer mount attacks, they are effectively defeated. Statistics for the last five years look bleak on this measure: the number of drone strikes does not seem to correlate negatively with the number of terrorist attacks.
As we saw in the run up to the elections in Pakistan, militant capacity for violence is alive and well. Somehow, they have managed to get over the loss of a dozen ‘number 2 men’ rather than going home and moping, which I assume was the expected outcome.
Studies show drones become more popular among the US public when the fear of terrorism is high. What do the Tsarnaevs have to do with murdered civilians – or killed terrorists – in Pakistan?
Nothing. Domestically, they give an illusion of control, of fighting back against the bogeyman, of American strength without American sacrifice. They are not security measures, they are security blankets. Among the most murderous and expensive in history, to be sure, but nevertheless security blankets for frightened children, fuelled by the corpses of our own.
We are all to a greater or lesser degree complicit in the same unforgiveable callousness that makes other places, other countries ‘less real’. But for the sake of our humanity this is a callousness that we all have to strive to overcome – because we are not real to the drone pilots or to the American public, not in any way that counts.
It is expediency rather than any feeling of kinship – no matter how much we in the cities may love McDonalds or Game of Thrones – that keeps drones from going about their grim business above Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. It is also expediency that keeps us – you and I and our children and our parents – from coming home to a nightmarish smoking ruin.
And the problem with the pendulum of expediency is that it is a pendulum, and not only can but in a long enough timeframe must swing the other way.
The Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked near Liberty Chowk in Lahore and very unfortunately, the assailants ultimately escaped. But I would rather that than have come home to ash and fire and debris, with a rising helpless panic in my throat, knowing that if my life – if any one of our lives – was taken or emptied in a moment, US policy is to shrug and say “but we got the terrorist.”
Even when they didn’t.
The American Dream, the cultural context in which mainstream Americans are raised, is in many respects a good myth – a fairytale of essential equality, of social mobility and of rugged individualism. It can inspire and embolden. But there is a dark side to the Dream, and never darker when you, yourself, are not an American.
It is their near-sacred regard for their supposed exceptionalism and manifest destiny – a national belief that does not push them to do the right thing but instead mentally positions them to believe that ‘the American Way’, like truth and justice, is a self-evident good, a good unto itself, its rightness woven into the very firmament of our universe, whatever their actions may be. How can America do wrong, asks the Dream, when American Rightness is as much a law of nature as gravity?
To sacrifice another country’s civilians by the hundreds to quell your own domestic uneasiness can almost be expected when one nation is powerful and the other is not. Such is the way of the world. But rarely has there been such hypocrisy, such blind insistence that such transgressions are not only an act of might, but of right.
I cannot see the justification in killing hundreds of our civilians, already shattered by the war with the Taliban, on the off chance that someone they were standing next to may, at an unspecified time in the future, play some uncertain role in possibly but almost certainly not harming an American citizen. All states place greater value on their own civilians, but this equation has become so perversely lopsided that the ability of the American establishment to see foreigners as human beings must seriously be called into question.
If you find yourself sympathetic towards the Taliban because they oppose the US, or you find yourselves supporting American drone strikes because they occasionally kill ‘high-value targets’ alongside ‘everything else’, you are labouring under an understandable but tragic misunderstanding. In this great game, we are not on either team – we are the ball. We cannot win; our role is to get kicked by both sides.
It is foolishness born of desperation to believe that either the Americans or the Taliban have our interest at heart. Oppose the drone strikes. Oppose the Taliban. I guarantee you it is not a contradiction in terms. And if you believe in either sovereignty or the sanctity of civilian life, it is the only possible position.
Re: Drone kills TTP No.2 | TTP withdraws talk offer
Well written and very sentimental. But that’s about it. Very short on substance. No one likes war, and certainly no one likes seeing people killed, but war this is.
For lack of alternative options, the drones remain the only option. Pakistan should learn that if you dont clean your mess, others are going to do it for you. Its a sad realty.
Re: Drone kills TTP No.2 | TTP withdraws talk offer
Well written and very sentimental. But that's about it. Very short on substance. No one likes war, and certainly no one likes seeing people killed, but war this is.
For lack of alternative options, the drones remain the only option. Pakistan should learn that if you dont clean your mess, others are going to do it for you. Its a sad realty.
"Clearly, killing a seemingly endless roster of ‘number 2 men’ – and the drone strikes in general – have not brought the US closer to victory. Against guerrillas, who have no white flags to raise and no territory to conquer, the only marker of ‘victory’ would be to shatter their capacity for violence; once the Taliban can no longer mount attacks, they are effectively defeated. Statistics for the last five years look bleak on this measure: the number of drone strikes does not seem to correlate negatively with the number of terrorist attacks."
That I call a very valid point raised..
And that:
"If you find yourself sympathetic towards the Taliban because they oppose the US, or you find yourselves supporting American drone strikes because they occasionally kill ‘high-value targets’ alongside ‘everything else’, you are labouring under an understandable but tragic misunderstanding. In this great game, we are not on either team – we are the ball. We cannot win; our role is to get kicked by both sides."