Some In The CIA Are Opposing Drone Strikes

Drone strikes are unpopular among many in the region because of the threat to civilians. Photo from CNN

CIA Drone Operators Oppose Strikes As Helping al Qaeda -- IPS

WASHINGTON, Jun 3, 2010 (IPS) - Some CIA officers involved in the agency's drone strikes programme in Pakistan and elsewhere are privately expressing their opposition to the programme within the agency, because it is helping al Qaeda and its allies recruit, according to a retired military officer in contact with them.

"Some of the CIA operators are concerned that, because of its blowback effect, it is doing more harm than good," said Jeffrey Addicott, former legal adviser to U.S. Special Forces and director of the Centre for Terrorism Law at St Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas, in an interview with IPS.

Addicott said the CIA operatives he knows have told him the drone strikes are being used effectively by al Qaeda and Taliban leaders to recruit more militants.

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My Comment: Two points that stick out for me in this story are ....

"Very frankly," Panetta declared May 18, 2009, "it's the only game in town in terms of confronting or trying to disrupt the al Qaeda leadership."

And ....

Such a strategy in Pakistan's tribal region appears to be futile. Madrassas in the region have churned out tens of thousands of young men with militant views, and their activities are spread across hundreds of sites in the region. A U.S. military intelligence official told Bill Roggio of The Long War Journal in 2009 that there were 157 training camps and "more than 400 support locations" in the tribal northwest.

I guess this puts everything into perspective.

My take .... many opposed the massive bombardment of German and Japanese cities during the Second World War. They felt that such a policy was only unifying these populations against the allies .... and you now what .... they were right. But the bombing had to done in order to win the war. Drone strikes on targets in Pakistan is not massive aerial bombardment .... unfortunately for us the impact is negligible and the populations are unifying against us.