Obama may have won on the ticket of “change†but the US drones keep firing at homes in Pakistan tribal belt killing numerous
people with a notably increasing number of innocent civilians amongst the few resistance fighters. This time eight people have been reported killed and as is always the case, many more injured, some severely in a 2 missile drone attack.Pakistan publicly opposes the US violation of Pakistan sovereignty by flying drones into and attacking targets inside its territory but behind the scenes, a deal seems to have been struck between the US and Pakistan on the condemnation limited to public announcements only. The Taliban recently announced 2 “martyrdom†operation every week in areas of Pakistan of their choosing until the drone attacks stop completely. The death of innocent civilians in such attacks is used as a great recruiting tool by the Taliban and the recent advances by Taliban and their supporters into territories closer and closer to the capital Islamabad shows the degree of success being achieved.
The choices left for the US military are very limited and for now the use of drone attacks seems to be the only viable one where condemnation on at the public level doesn’t seem to bother either the US or the Pakistani governments. If the Taliban keep growing in strength at current levels though, a change in US strategy could see Pakistan losing its nuclear assets in a worst case scenario.