First Missile Strikes On Pakistan Since Obama Presidency: Reports

According to ABC News, Commander-in-chief Obama has launched his first missile attacks...

The CIA's bombing campaign against al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan continued with two more attacks today, an indication, senior officials say, that President Barack Obama has approved the U.S. strategy that has killed at least eight of al Qaeda's top 20 leaders since July 2008.

The two attacks today in Pakistan's were the first since President Obama took office on Tuesday.

GroundReport has more information:

At least 18 people were killed in a suspected American missile attack in the North Waziristan agency of Pakistan on Friday.

It was believed to be the first attack that took place since President Barack Obama took office. Pakistani officials had previously expressed hope that once Obama became president he would stop the attacks.

According to local officials, at least three missiles targeted a house in Mir Ali, North Waziristan, killing over ten people, including Arab nationals, and wounding many more.

AP has more information on the strikes:

Suspected U.S. missiles killed 18 people on the Pakistan side of the Afghan border Friday, security officials said, the first attacks on the al-Qaida stronghold since President Barack Obama took office. At least five foreign militants were among those killed in the strikes by unmanned aircraft in two parts of the frontier region, an intelligence official said without naming them. There was no information on the identities of the others.

Pakistan's leaders had expressed hope Obama might halt the strikes, but few observers expected he would end a tactic that U.S. officials say has killed several top al-Qaida operatives and is denying the terrorist network a long-held safe haven.

The United States has staged more than 30 missile strikes inside Pakistan since August last year _ a barrage seen as a sign of frustration in Washington over Islamabad's efforts to curb militants that the U.S. blames for violence in Afghanistan and fears could be planning attacks on the West.

The New York Times, which confirms that Friday's missiles were launched from American aircraft, reports that similar attacks in the past have angered the Pakistani population.

But the attacks have also killed civilians, enraging Pakistanis and making it more difficult for the country's shaky government to win support for its own military operations against Taliban guerrillas in the country's lawless border region.

SLIDESHOW:

• • • • • • • Click through for pictures of protests in Pakistan...

A piece in Vanity Fair predicts that the strikes and Obama's "hawkish" stance on Afghanistan will bring the president into conflict with the anti-war left.

Obama can't be expected to pander to liberals for the next four years. But the decision to double down in Afghanistan carries considerable risk. Like the economy, it is a huge problem. But even the economy can be expected to bounce back sometime in the next few years. If Afghanistan turns into Obama's Iraq, he may miss the support of the anti-war left, which, it's worth remembering, helped propel him past Hillary Clinton not so very long ago.

Comments

[tlgeiger62]

No women in these pics .... hmmmmmm! Could it be they have more sense? Maybe the Muslim world should ask some of their female population what should be done. I'd be willing to bet more would get done.

[Multidi]

Wow

[Luvial]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20090124/wl_mcclatchy/3152656

This is a story about a US raid in Baghdad yesterday. It gives an example of "Why they hate us" and also it explains the genesis of "terrorist". It also foreshadows the coming failure of Obama's escaltion of violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

US troops at 2AM burst into a home and shot a husband and wife in their bed.

"An Iraqi couple was killed in their bed Saturday morning as their daughter slept between them when U.S. forces raided their home.'After the Americans left, Omar and his sisters returned to their home with their grandfather. In his parents' bedroom, Omar said, he saw his father's body at the very edge of the right side of the bed, motionless and bloody.

His mother lay in the middle of the bed in a pool of her own blood. She'd been shot in the head, the family said.

'I will avenge my father's death,' Omar said calmly Saturday evening."

[ProudAmerican23]

Luvial, I thing you missed about 1/2 of the story....

The U.S. military said the man was suspected of being part of the militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq, but local officials said he was a retired colonel with no links to insurgent groups.

The U.S. military said it raided the home in the Hawija district near Kirkuk after arresting a suspected Al Qaeda in Iraq militant in a nearby house. Troops opened fire when the woman, despite repeated warnings, reached for something beneath her mattress, the military said. One of the bullets passed through the woman's body and wounded the couple's daughter in the leg.
The man then attacked the soldiers and they shot him, the statement said.
The military said a handgun later was found under the woman's mattress.

[Luvial]

This blog now has 3909 comments which shows the outrage of many on this issue. I hope Obama starts to reconsider his policy of escalation of Bush's, I mean Obama's, War on Terror in Pakistan. When Paksitan cuts the supply lines to Afghanistan, how is the Pentagon going to get those Pizza Hut pizzas and Burger King Whoppers to the troops?

[hortonhearsawho2]

Meanwhile, Wasilla woman reads this headline and thinks...O is backing that Hairy fellow in England.

[hopeful12b]

The more I read these blog posts, the more outraged I become at the stupidity of them. No one here probably has any experience in real life conflict resolution. All you people who thought that Obama was going to just stand by and not defend America's interests and all you tree-huggers who thought that he was going to magically cure our predicament with hopeful rhetoric and fiery speeches, you must really be drinking the Kool-Aid. He said that he would go after the terrorists. He is trying to make surgical strikes into unmediated Pakistan territory. He is not trying to start an unjust war to run Musharraf from power. And even if these strikes did hit civilians,it is not the same as TARGETING civilians. If you believe that the conflicts of World Wars I and II were carefully zoned out and devoid of civilian existence, then you are on your second glass of Kool-Aid. Furthermore, if these "civilians" are being trained by Al Qaida, then they are militants, not civilians, no matter what their age, sex or physical condition. War is not a game of Axis & Allies.

[Tom Joad]

yes, President Obama stated during the campaign that he would take the fight to Pakistan if necessary. But there is a story today about AQ trying to find a way to propagandize against Obama. These types of strikes provide them with the raw material for a propaganda campaign. These militants pose little threat to the U.S. if they remain in A-stan and P-stan.

[chaos4700]

You do realize, that the callous attitude that American civilian lives are somehow more valuable, and that the lives of other people around the world are expendable if we think their deaths or poverty somehow enhances the safety and comfort of Americans... is what led the outrage against the US in the first place? I think you're the one with the simplistic board game conceptualization of the conflict if you think all it's going to take to solve this are enough missiles knocking enough of the opponents pieces off of he board.

Comparing this war of choice, where we've decided to "fight them there instead of here," to the World Wars, cheapens the true horrors that were the World Wars. We fought the World Wars as a last resort against one of the most powerful enemies in the world, not as a war of political expedience against what amounts to an organized crime ring. The glorification of war by people like you is what is dragging the US towards catastrophe -- economic, military and political.

[Luvial]

"And even if these strikes did hit civilians,it is not the same as TARGETING civilians" Not the same to who? The families of the innocent civilians killed or the guilty ones who did the killing? Or to those who stand on the sidelines cheering the slaughter?

[Tom Joad]

Can these 'militants' in these far off places, where there are barely roads, really pose a threat to the U.S.? Only if we let them into our country. They cannot harm us where they are. U.S. militarism must stop. We need to think carefully about what our real purpose is.

[lioness39]

hear, hear.

[truthglow]

This is not good, and it's not about "pandering" to the left. He just started, and he needs to try his diplomatic policy first. We don't need to see him doing his "macho" thing. We've had 8 years of "macho crap!"

[stondem]

missile strikes?????? What happened to hope, change, love?

[chaos4700]

The election is over, I suppose. So is the honeymoon it would seem.

[ParacelsusTheophrastus]

I don't like killing. It seems so Medieval like the Pope or the Plague.

[G-guy]

You need to crack open some eggs before you make the omelet.

[ltyr2002]

This is an unfortunate necessity, IMO.
It is ridiculous to assume the suicide bombing, decapitating, acid throwing, women hating madmen over there are going to make nice just because Bush is gone.

Obama seems ready to ramp up the diplomacy in this part of the world big time. But that doesn't mean the fighting can stop on a dime.

[Dandeno]

regardless of who got us in the mess (prior administration) BO is going to have to get us out, There are still troops over there that he needs to protect, and until he gets them out he will have to take measures to keep them protected, and killing bad guys is one of those measures. Unfortunately civilians are caught up in this mess. I am sure our current President is not intentionally authorizing the killing of civilians. The region is Lawless as stated, and I am sure he would love to solve this diplomatically, But diplomacy takes time. The wheels of the “war” are still turning and the momentum is strong, it will take more than signing a few executive orders for the POTUS to get these actions in check

[gbrooks]

Take a look at the map: http://www.homepagez.com/pakhistory/Middle-East-map.gif

We've got Iraq and Afghanistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are all US friendly (even if their residents aren't), and now we're getting mixed up with Pakistan (and Obama has mentioned going into Pakistan several times.) This is the second time we've hit Pakistan recently.

And look who's getting surrounded: Iran.

I'm no military strategist, but I think all of this is a set-up to go into Iran after Pakistan. Pakistan and Iran are the last two large countries over there that are resistant to the US' domination of the Middle East. Keep in mind that Russia and China are both relatively friendly with Iran.

I hope I'm wrong, but if my worst fears start to play out, it will be bloody, everywhere. It will come to the US.

[chaos4700]

I hope you're wrong too, but it's hard to ignore the geography and the politics at play. To say nothing of the rhetoric. Remember all the rhetoric that was touted about Iraq being at the center of Middle Eastern terrorism? Change the 'q' to an 'n' and 'Saddam' to 'Ahmedinejad' and today's rhetoric is essentially a redux of 2003.

[gbrooks]

I remember the rhetoric well. Ironically, the UN inspectors were actually surprised at how de-weaponized Iraq was.

I don't know a lot about Ahmedinejad, but aside from the typical intolerance of homosexuals, and saying that he wanted Israel gone, neither does anyone else. I do know that the Persians and Arabs kept mathematics, science, astronomy and medicine both alive and improved upon it while Europe was in the dark ages.

Often I wonder if we're seeing another collapse of the Roman Empire in progress. I

[PhilipTaylor]

Why did the US tell India to "take it easy on Pakistan" and then we do this?

Double standards have got to GO!

[pewty]

uhhhh we are still going after al-Qaida. You remember , those guys that really hate us?Its not like we declared war on Pak. and are invading. We killed a bunch of the enemy which is customary in most wars , but check me if Im wrong. I'm sorry if I sound a bit jaded but i like hearing al-Qaida are being killed.

[Alethia]

I've just heard on the news that a Pakistani pro-government leader, his two sons and a grand-son have been killed in the US drone attack.

Dear President Obama, will you please stop this? You are undermining the government there!

Remember Cambodia?

[chaos4700]

Oh, geez... do you have a link to the news on this? I need to see this for myself -- if this is what's happened, it's deplorable and it shows the error of continuing Bush's flawed, militaristic policies.