Drone attacks in Pakistan

I found the above map via boingboing. It shows attacks by unmanned robotic drones committed by the US within Pakistan. The analysts who produced it write:

“Our study shows that the 114 reported drone strikes in northwest Pakistan, including 18 in 2010, from 2004 to the present have killed approximately between 834 and 1,216 individuals, of whom around 549 to 849 were described as militants in reliable press accounts, about 2/3 of total on average. Thus, the true civilian fatality rate since 2004 according to our analysis is approximately 32%.”

Of course, what defines a militant in this kind of situation could be pretty elastic. But what this seems to be showing us is that at least a third of the people we are sending robots to kill are completely innocent Pakistani civilians.

Polling conducted by Al Jazeera finds the US, not the Taliban the biggest threat to Pakistan according to the country’s inhabitants.

59% of Pakistanis named the US as the biggest threat, only 11% named the Taliban.

NATO’s war in Afghanistan is frequently crossing the border into Pakistan – or “Afpak” – with indiscriminate air strikes inflicting bloody civilian casualties.

Most Pakistanis don’t want a fundamentalist Islamic state. Contrary to propaganda about Muslims being incompatible with democracy secular parties are voted in in Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto one of the few women leaders elected to lead a country was voted to power in Pakistan, also attacking the stereotype that all Muslims must be misogynist.

There’s also a large Socialist party in Pakistan that the SSP has close links with, the Labour Party of Pakistan. Nothing like New Labour in the UK, they’ve fought for workers rights against Islamic Fundamentalists and the Musharaff dictatorship, for a Socialist Pakistan.

It’s forces like the LPP that will defend democracy, womens rights, workers rights and freedom of speech in Pakistan – not NATO with it’s air strikes in a war designed to recolonise Asia.