A thunderbolt is an awesome thing. It fills one with dread bordering on horror. Missiles with their lethal loads sent down by warring mortals (Air Force people) from the safety of high flying aircraft or from safe distances are no less terrifying and much more lethal.
In the century gone by, some seven decades back, Londoners experienced this terror during the Second World War on a very large scale and over a very long period during which Nazi Germany's bombers in their scores would roar into the London sky and unburden themselves of their lethal cargo of bombs on the terrified masses below.
A halfway solution But Londoners had a halfway solution: each night thousands of them, makeshift bedding in hand, would descend into the underground railway network that even to this day criss-crosses and links Londoners underground and provides a wonderful means of transport for millions of Londoners. Little could the planners and builders of the wonderful network have foreseen that their transport facility structure would one day provide a measure of protection to London and Londoners from death and destruction raining down on them night after night! The safety provided by 20 or 30 feet of steel and concrete roof of the network (lovingly called "the Tube" by Londoners) could not be breached by the destructive power of the bombs that Germany could produce at the time. Each morning following a night of bombs exploding overhead, Londoners in their tens of thousands would emerge from their overnight "bunkers" to assess the destruction caused above and get back to the business of living and continuing with the war which to last some five years.
No such cover for Pakistanis Fast forward now to the present, some seventy years on and to Pakistan and Afghanistan and to our own thunderbolts! American unmanned aircraft controlled by American "distant fighters" from halfway across the globe fly freely over Pakistan's north-west territory. Technology has enabled them to watch the territory from a distance of some 20,000 kilometers, as clearly as the lines on the palm of their own hand. They constantly receive information about the presence of suspected "terrorists" or "freedom fighters" (take your choice) in houses, or schools or in moving vehicles. The information comes from "plants" on the Pakistani soil (remember a guy called Raymond Davis who got a safe, honourable exit from our custody after killing two Pakistanis in cold blood) trained and paid to carry out their "snoop and report" function right under the nose of our intelligence agencies.
Gilani's famous words Again with the use of their advanced technology the killers in America are able to make direct hits at these targets from missiles sent down by Drones, flying overhead unhindered and free from any risk of "enemy" action. Remember ex-PM's famous (alleged) words: "you keep attacking; we will keep protesting". How easily we forget there is but a very short distance between fall from grace on earth and more lasting disgrace in the life hereafter. We do not recollect having seen a rebuttal from any one about the disgraceful allegation.
From the Horses' mouth Now comes the much talked about report put out by Law Schools of American Universities Stanford and New York after "nine months of research and more than 130 interviews". It finds that the attacks 1) undermine respect for international law, 2) kill innocent people, 3) ruin local economy, 4) leave the people of the tribal areas (especially children) psychologically battered through living under the daily threat of sudden annihilation from the air among other consequences.
"Double tap": gift from super power ally The common tactic of the "double-tap" comes in for special mention in the Universities' report. Double-tap? Remember how Benazir had warned a companion immediately after an explosion near her car as she moved in her homecoming procession on 18 October 2007 in Karachi? She had said "watch out there would be another explosion". That is the "double tap" which is a second strike aimed at killing more people as they close in, in a rush to rescue lives by helping the wounded following the first explosion. That is the "double tap" practised by the brave American warriors to kill more innocent people trying to help the wounded and to save as many lives as could be saved. The result is that the rescuers are forced to delay their operation because they know about the "second tap" and the havoc it could cause resulting in deadly delay in attending to the wounded.
What about our own rulers? Again from American sources (what American officials have said) we get more specific evidence (if it was needed) of the tacit approval given to Drone attacks by our rulers. We learn for example that:
1) About once a month, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sends a fax to a general at Pakistan's intelligence service outlining broad areas where the United States intends to conduct strikes with drone aircraft and Pakistanis. There is no response from our side - positive or negative - only silence.
2) Pakistan continues to clear airspace in the targeted areas to avoid accidents to those who are not American targets. The spaces helpfully cleared for US Missile attacks are "three-dimensional rectangles in the sky referred to as flight "boxes".
3) We also learn from the same sources that in the early days of the Afghan war, "lists of specific individuals to be targeted on Pakistani soil by US drones were approved by both the US and Pakistan, in what was called a "dual-key" system".
4) But "starting about four years ago, the US began increasingly to go it alone". Did the US feel that the corrupt PPP-led coalition government was not worth the trouble of "by your leave" bother?
Two famous quotes
The first concerns what PM Gilani is reported to have said when talking on the subject to US ex-Ambassador Anne Patterson: "I don't care if they do it as long as they get the right people. We'll protest in the National Assembly and then ignore it." The other alleged quote is reported by US writer Bob Woodward in his book "Obama's Wars" in which Pakistan's own President is reported to have told ex-CIA chief Mike Hayden, around the same time: "Kill the seniors. Collateral damage worries you Americans. It does not worry me." If these reports are true (they have not been challenged to date to our knowledge) then we are compelled to say: with rulers like these in Pakistan, who wants enemies?
UN "owns up" our concern!
Since many months now UN functionaries have been wondering at Pakistan's apparent acceptance of Drone attacks. A month ago we heard Mr Emmerson, a leading London Barrister and UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism demanding that "the US must open itself to an independent investigation into its use of drone strikes or the United Nations will be forced to step in". Apparently we are waiting for that to happen and are ourselves afraid to lift a little finger as a mark of meaningful protest. All denials by the Government of any "tacit understanding" with the US about Drone attacks sound more and hollow as each day passes in view of the mounting evidence to the contrary.
(owajid@yahoo.com)