Obama resists drone strikes in Pakistan

By Sami Abraham

WASHINGTON: US media reports have revealed that President Barrack Obama, during situation room meetings at the White House to review the US strategy on Pakistan and Afghanistan, did express concern over the idea of expanding drones attacks to Quetta and other urban centres of Pakistan. The White House has not confirmed or denied the report.

The reports say that President Obama was of the view that widening the scope of the drone attacks to more Pakistani areas would be risky, unwise and draw strong reactions from Pakistani politicians and military leaders, who have been largely quiet about these attacks as long as they were confined to the remote Pak-Afghan border areas.

A top US official, told this correspondent on condition of anonymity, that top US diplomats, including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Special US representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Ambassador Holbrooke and US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Paterson, were also of the view that the US should be ready for a very strong reaction from Pakistan in case drones attacks were expanded to settled areas of Pakistan, including Quetta.

However, no one disputed the benefits and advantages of these drone attacks, the US official added. The US official also said that the top US leadership had been encouraged by Pakistan’s recent military efforts to root out militants, along the Afghan border, and it did not want to jeopardise that cooperation.

President Obama, the official added, has not closed the door on wider drone attacks. And it is likely that the US administration will continue to debate, and even plan for the possibility of expanding, drone operations in the future if only to keep the pressure on Pakistan to maintain its current efforts to capture and kill terrorists.

APP adds: “One person standing in the way of expanded missile strikes: President Obama,” Mark Hosenball, Newsweek’s investigative correspondent wrote in the latest issue of the weekly.

“Obama is concerned that firing missiles into urban areas like Quetta, where intelligence reports suggest that Taliban leader Mulla Mohammad Omar and other high-level militants have sometimes taken shelter, would greatly increase the risk of the civilian casualties,” correspondent Hosenball wrote. “It would also draw protests from Pakistani politicians and military leaders, who have been largely quiet about the drone attacks as long as they’ve been confined to the country’s out-of-sight border region,” the report added.

Meanwhile, an identical report on the US drone programme in The Los Angeles Times said: “The prospect of Predator aircraft strikes in Quetta, a sprawling city, signals a new US resolve to decapitate the Taliban. But it also risks rupturing Washington’s relationship with Islamabad.

“The concern has created tension among Obama administration officials over whether unmanned aircraft strikes in a city of 850,000 are a realistic option,” The LA Times said in a front-page dispatch.

“Proponents, including some military leaders, argue that attacking the Taliban in Quetta — or at least threatening to do so — is critical to the success of the revised war strategy President Obama unveiled last week.” “If we don’t do this — at least have a real discussion of it — Pakistan might not think we are serious,” a senior US official involved in war planning, was quoted as saying.

“What the Pakistanis have to do is to tell the Taliban that there is too much pressure from the US, we can’t allow you to have sanctuary inside Pakistan anymore.” But others, including high-ranking US intelligence officials, according to The Times, have been more skeptical of employing drone attacks in a place that Pakistanis see as part of their country’s core. Pakistani officials, according to a report, have warned that the fallout would be severe.

“We are not a banana republic,” a senior Pakistani official involved in discussions of security issues with the Obama administration, was quoted as saying. “If the United States follows through, the official said, “this might be the end of the road.”

The Times said the drone operations “have been conducted with the consent of the government of President Asif Ali Zardari, who has proved a reliable ally to America in his first 15 months in office”. But, the newspaper noted that the CIA air strikes are highly unpopular among the Pakistani public, because of concerns over national sovereignty and civilian casualties. American and Pakistani officials stressed that the United States has stopped short of issuing an ultimatum to Pakistan.

The senior Pakistani official bridled at the suggestion that Pakistan has been reluctant to target the militants in Quetta, saying the US assertions about the city’s role as a sanctuary have been exaggerated. “We keep hearing that there is a shadow government in Quetta, but we have never been given actionable intelligence,” the Pakistani official was quoted as saying.

Pakistan is prepared to pursue the Taliban leaders, including Mulla Omar, even when the intelligence is imprecise, the official said. “Even if a compound 1 kilometer by 1 kilometer is identified, we will go to find him.” But, he added, “for the past two years we haven’t heard anything more.”

Source:thenews.com.pk/