Our leaders’ deceit

It has come as no surprise to hear Richard Holbrooke state, simply and clearly, that the US drone attacks are being carried out with the approval and close collaboration of the Pakistan civil and military leadership. It is shameful how this leadership has continued to lie to its people on this critical issue. It shows that this leadership lacks the moral courage to speak the truth to its own people because it knows full well that consenting to the killing of its own people can never be right and the drone attacks continue to kill more civilians than ‘militants’. As an American, Holbrooke can claim that the drone attacks help “improve” the security environment “at a very minimal cost”; but for the Pakistani leadership to regard the loss of Pakistani lives – mostly innocent citizens including women and children amongst the thousands who have died so far – simply in pursuance of a vengeful (in response to 9/11) US policy, as ‘minimal cost’ is truly condemnable.
As for what Holbrooke means by an ‘improved security environment’, only his obtuse American logic can comprehend, since it is now accepted by most rational analysts that the drone attacks have aggravated the security environment for Pakistan, including more suicide attacks and instability as well as displacement of people in FATA. In addition, even voices in the US are now conceding that the drone attacks are illegal under international law and need to be stopped. But then perhaps the US intent is to destabilise Pakistan as part of the policy to acquire control over its nuclear assets? In that case, certainly the drone policy has “helped improve” the security environment. -nation