It is not for the dead . . . .

It is not for the dead that the bell tolls, 

but for those who are left behind.

New York Times

October 22, 2013

Civilian Deaths in Drone Strikes Cited in Report

By DECLAN WALSH and IHSANULLAH TIPU MEHSUD

LONDON — In the telling of some American officials, the C.I.A. drone campaign in Pakistan has been a triumph with few downsides: In more than 300 missile attacks there since 2008, dozens of Qaeda and Taliban leaders have been killed, and the pace of the strikes, which officials frequently describe as “surgical” and “contained,” has dropped sharply over the past year.

But viewed from Miram Shah, the frontier Pakistani town that has become a virtual test laboratory for drone warfare, the campaign has not been the antiseptic salve portrayed in Washington. . . .

“The drones are like the angels of death,” said Nazeer Gul, a shopkeeper in Miram Shah. “Only they know when and where they will strike.”

Their claims of distress are now being backed by a new Amnesty International investigation that found, among other points, that at least 19 civilians in the surrounding area of North Waziristan had been killed in just two of the drone attacks since January 2012 — a time when the Obama administration has held that strikes have been increasingly accurate and free of mistakes.

The study is to be officially released on Tuesday along with a separate Human Rights Watch report on American drone strikes in Yemen, as the issue is again surfacing on other fronts. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, a vocal critic of the drone campaign, is to meet with President Obama in the White House. . . .

But nowhere has the issue played out more directly than in Miram Shah, in northwestern Pakistan. It has become a fearful and paranoid town, dealt at least 13 drone strikes since 2008, with an additional 25 in adjoining districts — more than any other urban settlement in the world.

Even when the missiles do not strike, buzzing drones hover day and night, scanning the alleys and markets with roving high-resolution cameras.

That is because their potential quarry is everywhere in Miram Shah — Islamist fighters with long hair, basketball shoes and AK-47 rifles who roam the streets, fraternize in restaurants and, in some cases, even direct traffic in the central bazaar. The men come from an array of militant groups that take shelter in Waziristan and nearby, including Al Qaeda and the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban. . . .

Unusually for the overall American drone campaign, the strikes in the area mostly occur in densely populated neighborhoods. The drones have hit a bakery, a disused girls’ school and a money changers’ market, residents say. . . .

While the strike rate has dropped drastically in recent months, the constant presence of circling drones — and accompanying tension over when, or whom, they will strike — is a crushing psychological burden for many residents.

Sales of sleeping tablets, antidepressants and medicine to treat anxiety have soared, said Hajji Gulab Jan Dawar, a pharmacist in the town bazaar. Women were particularly troubled, he said, but men also experienced problems. “We sell them this,” he said, producing a packet of pills that purported to treat erectile dysfunction under the brand name Rocket.

Despite everything, a semblance of normal life continues in Miram Shah. On market day, farmers herding goats and carrying vegetables stream in from the surrounding countryside.. . .  On the edge of town, where buildings melt into low, tree-studded hills, young boys play soccer on the banks of the Tochi River. As in so many other countries, some youngsters wear the jersey of the English soccer club Manchester United. . . .

But the new Amnesty International report, which examines the 45 known strikes in North Waziristan between January 2012 and August 2013, asserts that in several cases drones killed civilians indiscriminately.

Last October, it says, American missiles killed a 68-year-old woman named Mamana Bibi as she picked vegetables in a field close to her grandchildren. In July 2012, 18 laborers, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed near the Afghan border.

Ms. Bibi’s son, Rafiq ur-Rehman, and two of her injured grandchildren are due to travel to the United States next week to speak about their experiences.

“The killing of Mamana Bibi appears to be a clear case of extrajudicial execution,” said Mustafa Qadri, the report’s author, in an interview. “It is extremely difficult to se

e how she could have been mistaken for a militant, let alone an imminent threat to the U.S.”

Declan Walsh reported from London, and Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud from Miram Shah, Pakistan. Zia ur-Rehman contributed reporting from Karachi, Pakistan.

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Drone strikes are not like baseball strikes:  they carry a pretty big punch.

Daily life in Miran Shah

Carrying goods to market

Manchester United is a favorite team

North Waziristani like their open carry laws . . .

. . . as do some Texans.

San Antonio, Texas, 14 Sep 13

Death of loved ones is painful to those left behind, whether in North Waziristan . . . .

. . . or Sandy Hook, Conn. 

Empathy goes a long way toward mutual understanding of some of our commonality.

Good relations with Iran?

From Thomas Friedman's  op-ed article in this morning's New York Times, with luck Iran is safe from being Bombed and the chance that we will see a world at peace in my lifetime is increased.

Modest congratulations are due those of you who opposed Bombing Iran initially.

A free and prosperous Iran, though still a theocracy theocracy might look something like this:

. . . instead of something like this:

Israel and the Horrible Saudis are the likely spoilers.  

Israel’s leaders -- some American Jews consider them Fascists and many more believe the leaders have betrayed Israel’s founding hope of a free, democratic state --- are unreasonably afraid of death.  

Death comes to us all, some sooner than they would like, but an irrational fear of death leads to irrational and brutal actions; courageously facing the certainty of death leads to gentleness and openness.  

Israeli leaders are nothing if not irrational and brutal: irrational because they have enough atomic Bombs to make them safe from any nation on the face of the earth; brutal because of the march of new settlements into Palestinian territory and the mistreatment of Palestinians.

 Remind you of anything, you Border Citizens?

The H. Saudis are a danger because they wish with all their might for a return to the splendid Abbasid Caliphate during the Arab Golden Age (750 - 1250 a.c.e.), when the acquisition of knowledge was the highest value . . .

 . . . and they are captured by Wahhabism, a religion so reactionary and intolerant of women and others who do not conform that they have won no converts outside the Pashtun, in spite of decades of expensive propaganda. 

There are not many pictures.  Pictures are not often permitted.

See Wikipedia, LGBT rights in Saudi Arabia; Human Rights Watch,  Saudi Arabia 2013 

Although Wahhabism wins no converts, the H. Saudis have so much free money that they are dangerous:  consider their efforts to turn Syria into a Salafi state.

Wahhabism is sometimes conflated with the Salafi movement; and some Salafi regard the term as derogatory:  no matter: they both espouse an intolerant interpretation of Sharia that only experts can tell apart.  It is as if a majority of the voting Citizens in the U.S. believed hat the Old Testament, with its cruel injunctions must be applied literally.   Indeed, the Old Testament may be even more draconian than Sharia:  Consider an Arkansas Republican politician, quoted in the Daily Kos 

"a child who disrespects his parents must be permanently removed from society in a way that gives an example to all other children of the importance of respect for parents. The death penalty for rebellious children is not something to be taken lightly. The guidelines for administering the death penalty to rebellious children are given  in Deut 21:18-21” -- Arkansas Republican Charlie Fuqua.

Deuteronomy, an Old Testament book held to be The Holy Word of God by Christians, recommends stoning rebellious children to death.  The text is here, and is worth reading, ye who are certain of our moral superiority.

Salafi fall in love --

and Sunni Muslims mourn their dead.

Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, Act 3, Scene 1:  Shylock:

. . . .  I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means,warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, asa Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?