A real headline today (4/26/10) in the Washington Post:
Amid Outrage Over Civilian Deaths in Pakistan, CIA Turns to Smaller Missiles
The piece–by Joby Warrick and Peter Finn–has government officials (anonymously, of course) providing new assurances:
The technological improvements have resulted in more accurate operations that have provoked relatively little public outrage, the officials said…. The CIA declines to publicly discuss its clandestine operations in Pakistan, and a spokesman would not comment on the kinds of weapons the agency is using. But two counterterrorism officials said in interviews that evolving technology and tactics have kept the number of civilian deaths extremely low. The officials, along with other U.S. and Pakistani officials interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity because the drone campaign is both classified and controversial.
The piece goes on to offer some numbers:
According to an internal CIA accounting described to the Washington Post, just over 20 civilians are known to have died in missile strikes since January 2009, in a 15-month period that witnessed more than 70 drone attacks that killed 400 suspected terrorists and insurgents. Agency officials said the CIA’s figures are based on close surveillance of targeted sites both before and after the missiles hit.
Unofficial tallies based on local news reports are much higher. The New America Foundation puts the civilian death toll at 181 and reports a far higher number of alleged terrorists and insurgents killed–more than 690.
The Post account is one of those instances where accepting the government’s (anonymous) claims at face value is really the only way to accept the storyline, since they’re unwilling to go on the record or share their data with independent researchers.
The piece includes this strange comment:
The drone strikes have been controversial in Pakistan, where many view them as an infringement on national sovereignty.
Yes, “many” people would probably agree that another country conducting secret, deadly airstrikes in another country infringes that country’s sovereignty. Does that conclusion really need to qualified?
Even if the gummint’s numbers were true, “just over 20” civilians murdered?
Is this a discount war, with “Low Collateral Damage Every Day!”?
Dead is dead. Ask the families.
But didn’t the NYT recently go out of its way to solicit commentary saying the war wasn’t killing enough civilians?
Looks like we have a disagreement among the jingos.
Doug, I found your comment pretty funny. It reminded me of a recent Simpon’s episode where Homer uses the term “gummint”. Maybe that’s where you got it from…
Russ, your comment reminds me of a FAIR blog from 4/16/10 that had USA Today saying “Accidental killings hurt Nato effort”.
Does the CIA’s new technology remind anyone of the Bush Adminsitration’s attempt to describe their killing of civilains? Lazer guided “smart-bombs” that would hit only our enemies and not innocent civilians. I guess a few went astray. And really? 20? What kind of number is that. There was at least 19 civilians killed during the US-NATO offensive in February 2010. If you are going to lie, lie more convincingly.
Justin, I’m from the Deeeeep South. We’ve been saying “gummint” since long before Homer was a gleam in Groening’s eye.
And I know you didn’t mean it that way, but there’s nothing funny about this. To call yourself human, you have to be able to put yourself in the place of those victimized by greed, hate and the lust for power.
Horribly, those who call the shots in this world, and give the orders to fire them, may outwardly resemble human beings, but their actions belie any link to humanity, don’t they?
The question we have to ask ourselves is, “What’s my link?”
Doug, I should have clarified but thanks for doing that for me. The only thing I found funny about it was the term “gummint”.
This is a horrible situation where governments and independent agencies see civilain casulaties not as a loss of human life, but as numbers and statistics of the war for THEIR cause, not ours.
We are all human. It’s time to prove it. Beacuse with death as in life we are one in the same.
Well said, Justin.
I think for many in this country, even so-called “progressives”, politics – defined, or at least it should be, as how it’s decided who wins and who loses, and that often means who lives and who dies – is something of a game or a pastime. For them, it’s to be laughed about and shouted about. For us, as the old song goes:
But when you’ve got to choose
Any way you look at it
You lose
When we don’t see those in power for what they are, when we retreat into our circumscribed worlds and give them free reign to do as they please, fooling ourselves into believing that we’ve done our civic duty by checking the box for the marginally lesser of two evils, then we lose.
We lose our humanity, and in doing so we condemn folks here and around the world to lose far more than that, don’t we?
I don’t say any of this to pretend I’m Jesus on a stick. I’ve done some work that I think has been of benefit to others, but not what I’m capable of.
That’s my sin, if you will. I hope to atone for it in the future.
Enough with the preaching. We just need to do what our conscience demands and our courage allows, and never be satisfied with the limits of either.
Work for you?
Is there a reason to provide Fox News and Microsoft 7 with free ads? FAIR should block these fascist asses.
OK, it looks like the Fox News Watchdog thing isn’t Fox News… but still, what are they contributing? Nada. It’s just spam.
The military and their contractors keep talking about “precision” this and that. Just like Rumsfeld did. Perhaps someday they will learn the meaning of a word they avoid: “accurate.”
Good point Joel, I guess by “precision” they mean they’re good at making the same mistake over and over again.
what I’ve learned from a blog like this is:the readers work off their frustrations by responding to a FAIR author’s viewpoint…….endresult a deadend avalance of more impotent chatter…….all the political blogs offer this device…..blabber,most wellmeaning going NOWHERE, perhaps enticeing some to contribute….the believers talking primarily to themselves, solving nothing, just repeating what we know is the horrid condition of a supine press bereft of courage, risk-taking and guts…….bah humbug