Obama's record in Pakistan: Myths, Realities, and Foreign Policy's whitewashing

by: NH Ex-pat

Mon Mar 08, 2010 at 08:42:25 AM EST

Muhammad Idrees Amhad, co-founder of PULSE, brought to my (and other front pagers) attention that Foreign Policy's "Afpak Channel" is trying to diminish and whitewash Obama's murderous record in Pakistan with a 'report' based exclusively on official pronouncements. I won't go so far as calling it "Obama's murderous record," but since Amhad is a native of Peshawar and he has seen and experienced the horror of civilian air strikes and American foreign policy, I take what he has to say seriously... and so should everyone here who voted for Obama two years ago.  

To counter Foreign Policy's whitewashing (and IMO, it is a whitewash), let me give you the actual human cost of the drone wars provided by  Amhad.

Amhad writes the following:

The Pakistani daily Dawn - a pro-US paper not known for its antiwar stance - reports that US drones killed over 700 civilians in 44 bombings since Obama took office in January 2009. Of the 44 attacks, only five succeeded in hitting their target. In other words, Obama has surpassed his predecessor's murderous record in Pakistan. (Of course these attacks are carried out with the complicity of Pakistan's ruling elites - as Jane Mayer reported, and as Pervez Musharraf confessed - and are cheered on by native informers such as Ahmed Rashid).

Here's how Dawn writes it. Read below the fold.  

PESHAWAR: Of the 44 predator strikes carried out by US drones in the tribal areas of Pakistan over the past 12 months, only five were able to hit their actual targets, killing five key Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders, but at the cost of over 700 innocent civilians.

Over 700 killed in 44 drone strikes in 2009

According to the statistics compiled by Pakistani authorities, the Afghanistan-based US drones killed 708 people in 44 predator attacks targeting the tribal areas between January 1 and December 31, 2009.

For each Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorist killed by US drones, 140 innocent Pakistanis also had to die. Over 90 per cent of those killed in the deadly missile strikes were civilians, claim authorities.

The success percentage for the drone hits during 2009 was hardly 11 per cent. On average, 58 civilians were killed in these attacks every month, 12 persons every week and almost two people every day. Most of the attacks were carried out on the basis of human intelligence, reportedly provided by the Pakistani and Afghan tribesmen, who are spying for the US-led allied forces in Afghanistan.

Of the five successful predator attacks carried out in 2009, the first one came on January 1, which reportedly killed two senior al-Qaeda leaders - Usama al-Kin and Sheikh Ahmed Salim - both wanted by the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Kin was the chief operational commander of Al-Qaeda in Pakistan and had replaced Abu Faraj Al Libi after his arrest in 2004.

The second successful drone attack was conducted on August 5 in South Waziristan that killed the most wanted fugitive chief of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan Baitullah Mehsud along with his wife.

The US State Department had announces a $5million head money for information leading to Baitullah, making him the only Pakistani fugitive with the head money separately announced by Islamabad and Washington. -DawnNews

Is that a cause for concern for Democrats here, or are we going to come up with convenient excuses for Obama because he has a "D" next to his name as opposed to an "R?"