Both Taliban and U.S equally unpopular in Pakistan..

Actually the US is marginally less popular with 9 per cent considering the US positively as a partner but 10 per cent in favor of the Taliban. The U.S. has the same degree of popularity as Al Qaeda!
No doubt Obama's expansion of the drone attacks have not helped his ratings with only 13 per cent having confidence in him. As one commentator summed it up: Obama is like old wine in new bottles. Bush recorked so to speak.


- News From Antiwar.com - http://news.antiwar.com/2009/08/13/poll-pakistani-oppose-both-us-and-taliban/ -

Poll: Pakistanis Oppose Both US and Taliban

Posted By Jason Ditz On August 13, 2009 @ 6:52 pm In Uncategorized 1 Comment

The official use of “Af-Pak” to describe the war in Central Asia acknowledges something Pakistanis have known for a long time, that the war over Afghanistan is increasingly taking place in Pakistan’s tribal areas, and the conflict has done material damage to the nation’s security and economy, leaving it one of the least stable nations on the planet.

Polls suggest this increasing strife is dramatically damaging Pakistanis’ view of the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and the United States, the primary combatants in the conflict. Today’s Pew Global Attitudes poll shows only 10 percent of the nation have a favorable view of the Taliban, down from 27 percent a year ago. Al-Qaeda was slightly lower with only 9 percent approval.

But the United States fared no better, with only nine percent of Pakistanis polled describing the nation as a “partner” and nearly two-thirds characterizing the US as an “enemy.” The number was in keeping with an earlier Gallup poll, which showed Pakistanis identified the US as the biggest threat to Pakistan going forward.

The Pew poll was conducted in 20 countries and showed Pakistanis had the least favorable view of President Obama, with only 13 percent having confidence in him. One lawyer in Lahore told the Associated Press that Obama “is like an old wine in a new bottle.”

Most of the other nations’ view of the US was considerably improved by Obama’s election. Perhaps as a testament to how unpopular the drone strikes, begun under President Bush but dramatically escalated since Obama’s inauguration, remain in the nation and how much they are serving as a driver of popular opinion away from the US.

Obama's Drone Policy: Bush on Steroids

It sounds from this article as if Obama's review of drone strategy includes increasing the number of attacks. Obama may also begin attacks in new areas that so far have been out of bounds. Many commentators have claimed that the attacks in effect help to recruit more to the militant cause but no one in the Obama administration seems to be listening. Any policy that avoids any US casualties is OK no matter how much collateral damage it may cause.


US plans new drone attacks on Pakistan: report

1 hour ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Washington is planning new drone attacks on militant targets in Pakistan as part of its overall review of military strategy there and in Afghanistan, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Intelligence officials from the United States and Pakistan are composing a "fresh list of terrorist targets for Predator drone strikes along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border," the newspaper said citing officials involved.

However, cooperation between the two allies is complicated by the belief held by US officials that operatives within Pakistan's top intelligence agency are "directly supporting the Taliban and other militants in Afghanistan, even as the US targets those groups," the report said.

In particular, Washington is reviewing its drone program, which the administration views as "a success" and is not expected to be cut, and is seeking to clarify under what conditions drone attacks should be used.

Adjustments could me made to "change the pace and size of the program, and make some technical refinements in an effort to hit targets faster," the report said.

Details of the administration's broader reassessment of military strategy in the region could be released as early as Friday.

Earlier Thursday, officials in Pakistan said a suspected US missile strike killed at least four militants in a tribal region of Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan.

"Two missiles fired from a suspected US drone hit the compound of a local pro-militant tribal elder Malik Gulab Khan, killing four residents," a local security official told AFP.

The strike was the second in as many days by US drones, with a missile on Wednesday killing up to seven alleged Al-Qaeda militants in the nearby Makeen area of South Waziristan.

Panetta: Drone Attacks in Pakistan Will Continue.

Obama changes words not reality. There is no longer a war on terror although there is a battle against terrorists and extremism. There are also drone attacks begun by Bush and now continuing with the clear blessing of Obama. Meanwhile, Sharif the opposition leader in Pakistan is disqualified along with his brother from running for office. The Pakistan govt. may be on the verge of toppling if not facing civil war. The US might not mind if a govt. more willing to face casualites in the tribal areas took power but that is not likely. The drone attacks have made the Pakistani populace even more anti-American.



Panetta: Drone Attacks in Pakistan Will Continue
New CIA Director Declares Nothing Has Changed, Nothing Will Change
Posted February 26, 2009
The new Director of the CIA Leon Panetta declared yesterday that the controversial drone attacks against sites in Pakistan would continue, in spite of the growing criticism. Panetta declared that the attacks, which began under the Bush Administration, “have been successful.”
But perhaps more ominous than being the latest in a myriad of officials who have said the attacks would continue, Panetta declared that “nothing has changed our efforts to go after terrorists, and nothing will change those efforts.” After a presidential campaign that centered on the promise of change, the Obama Administration’s appointees seem to be going to great lengths to assure the public that “nothing has changed” and that “nothing will change.”
But not everything remains constant. If anything, Obama has escalated the attacks inside Pakistan. The Pakistani government’s faux-outrage is becoming less and less plausible amid a flurry of reports of their “private” support, and the government’s stability is increasingly in doubt, not only from its failing wars and the unpopular US strikes, but a failing economy and political turmoil. Insisting that nothing will change ignores the decidedly changeable reality on the ground in Pakistan.

New Beginnings in Pakistan: Drones Part II

This is from timesonline.

The same imperial arrogance as we saw with Bush. The same collateral damage to innocents in this remote controlled justice which has a mechanical monster controlled by someone safely removed the scene being both judge and carrying out punishment without trial or anyone testing evidence.
The new Pakistan govt. is trying again to negotiate with some tribes. No doubt the US will not like that. The US does not like Pakistan troops being moved to the border with India. However Paksitani troops no doubt find it a relief. It is safe there!

January 23, 2009
President Obama 'orders Pakistan drone attacks'
Tim Reid in Washington
Missiles fired from suspected US drones killed at least 15 people inside Pakistan today, the first such strikes since Barack Obama became president and a clear sign that the controversial military policy begun by George W Bush has not changed.
Security officials said the strikes, which saw up to five missiles slam into houses in separate villages, killed seven "foreigners" - a term that usually means al-Qaeda - but locals also said that three children lost their lives.
Dozens of similar strikes since August on northwest Pakistan, a hotbed of Taleban and al-Qaeda militancy, have sparked angry government criticism of the US, which is targeting the area with missiles launched from unmanned CIA aircraft controlled from operation rooms inside the US.
The operations were stepped up last year after frustration inside the Bush administration over a perceived failure by Islamabad to stem the flow of Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters from the tribal regions into Afghanistan. Mr Obama has made Afghanistan his top foreign policy priority and said during his presidential campaign that he would consider military action inside Pakistan if the government there was unable or unwilling to take on the militants.
The strikes come just a day after Mr Obama appointed Richard Holbrooke, a former UN ambassador, as a special envoy for the region.
Eight people died when missiles hit a compound near Mir Ali, an al-Qaeda hub in Pakistan's North Waziristan region. Seven more died when hours later two missiles hit a house in Wana, in South Waziristan. Local officials said the target in Wana was a guest house owned by a pro-Taleban tribesman. One said that as well as three children, the tribesman's relatives were killed in the blast.
Pakistan has objected to such attacks, saying they are a violation of its territory that undermines its efforts to tackle militants. Since September, the US is estimated to have carried out about 30 such attacks, killing more than 220 people.