U.S. Drone Strike Kills 7 In Pakistan Reuters | By Jibran Ahmad | 05/29/2013 1:43 am EDT Excerpts: Peshawar, Pakistan, May 29 (Reuters) A U.S. drone strike killed seven people in Pakistan's North Waziristan region on Wednesday, security officials said, the first such attack since a May 11 general elections in which the use of the unmanned aircraft was a major issue. U.S. President Barack Obama recently indicated he was scaling back the drone strike programme, winning cautious approval from Pakistan. Pakistani security officials and Pashtun tribesmen in the northwestern region said the drone fired two missiles that struck a mud-built house at Chashma village, 3 km (2 miles) east of Miranshah, the region's administrative town. They said seven people were killed and four wounded. It was not immediately clear if the victims were the intended targets. "Tribesmen started rescue work an hour after the attack and recovered seven bodies," said resident Bashir Dawar. "The bodies were badly damaged and beyond recognition." North Waziristan is on the Afghan border and has long been a stronghold of militants including Afghan Taliban and their al Qaeda and Pakistani Taliban allies. Prime Minister-elect Nawaz Sharif said this month that drone strikes were a "challenge" to Pakistan's sovereignty. "We will sit with our American friends and talk to them about this issue," he said. Obama's announcement of scaling back drone strikes was widely welcomed by the people of North Waziristan, where drones armed with missiles have carried out the most strikes against militants over the past seven years, sometimes with heavy civilian casualties. Pakistan, fighting a Taliban insurgency, is a key ally in the U.S. war on militancy but, while that is still a high priority for the United States, main concerns there are the economy and other domestic issues such as healthcare. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said last week it appreciated Obama's acknowledgement that force alone did not work, adding that the root causes of terrorism had to be addressed. "On the use of drone strikes, the government of Pakistan has consistently maintained that (they) are counter-productive, entail loss of innocent civilian lives, have human rights and humanitarian implications and violate the principles of national sovereignty, territorial integrity and international law," it said. read: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/29/us-drone-strike-pakistan_n_3350078.html ........ IMO: If Pakistan s leader says he isagainst drone stikes, why is America continuing with them? I think they are a great infringement on peoples rights, especially in another country...we certainly wouldnt allow Pakistan to come into American airspace and bomb selected areas, so why are we doing the same thing to them? It is more likely that it is in our interests to continue drones that may, or may not, take innocent lives in order to get a wanted terrorist. But arent we continuing a war on terror by remore control? Have troops outlived their usefulness? Are we ready to have drones monitoring our highways, malls, rivers, borders, and our homes? There are too many ethical and constitutional questions surrounding the drone question to allow it to continue. Darrell Issa should start earning his paycheck by demanding an investigation into why drones have been used without the explicit acceptance of Congress, whether on foreign soil, or in America itself. Drones should have no place in our lives except at borders, watching Congress, monitoring national disasters, and should be for surveillance only.
