CIA UPS DRONE CAMPAIGN…
The CIA is expanding its campaign of using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to strike terrorist hideouts in Pakistan. The military has begun diverting more Predator and Reaper UAVs to the CIA in recent months as the administration has decided to place greater emphasis on the targeted assassination program run by the CIA. (While U.S. military operations are forbidden in Pakistan, the CIA-operated drone campaign is conducted from within Pakistan and with the cooperation of Pakistani authorities.) The shift in focus and resources comes as Washington has begun to accept the Pakistani military is unwilling and/or incapable of confronting Pakistani-based militants on its own. September saw 22 reported drone strikes, far more than any other month in the history of the war and roughly double the average over the previous five months. The effort to divert UAV resources to the CIA was led by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, CIA Director Leon Panetta, and Commander of Allied Forces Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus. (Wall St. Journal October 2, 2010)
…AS FATA RESIDENTS WEIGH IN ON DRONE STRIKES
As the Obama administration expands the drone campaign in Pakistan – it has already conducted over 122 strikes, more than double the number of strikes conducted by the Bush administration over eight years – recent polling from the region shows President Obama’s approval ratings in Pakistan’s tribal areas have dropped significantly. Eighty three percent of residents in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) now view Obama unfavorably. The drone strikes are also fiercely opposed by FATA residents, with only 16 percent believing they accurately target militants and 48 percent believing they kill largely civilians.
However, opposition to drone strikes drops “dramatically” if they are operated by Pakistanis. Moreover, less than ten percent of the population supports al Qaeda and fewer than twenty percent supports the Taliban. Less than one percent of FATA residents said they would vote for either group in an election. Almost seventy percent, meanwhile, wanted the Pakistani military to pursue militants operating in the tribal areas. Additionally, the survey, which was conducted by New America Foundation, Terror Free Tomorrow, and a local Pakistani polling group, found only twenty percent of the FATA population is fully employed. (CNN September 30, 2010)
MUSHARRAF RETURNS, AND SPILLS THE BEANS
Pakistan’s former president and military chief, Pervez Musharraf, has publicly announced he is starting a new political party and will return to active politics in Pakistan, where he deeply unpopular and faces a litany of legal charges. In interviews announcing his return, President Musharraf also admitted something Pakistani officials have denied for years, if not decades: That they formed and supported militant jihadist groups specifically designed to target India in Kashmir. “The were indeed formed,” admitted the former president. “It is the right of any country to promote its own interests… The West was ignoring the resolution of the Kashmir issues.” In the interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, Musharraf also warned of the consequences of the U.S. prematurely withdrawing from Afghanistan: “Then militancy will prevail not only in Pakistan, India and Kashmir, but perhaps also in Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States. That is my belief.” (Times of India October 5, 2010)
INDIA LOOKS EAST
For nearly twenty years, India has pursued a “Look East” policy first initiated under Prime Minister Narasihma Rao. India had been lacking in its engagement with East Asia in the decades since independence and Rao hoped to reconcile that deficit, particularly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The strategy has begun to bear fruit as of late, and some see it as an important counterbalance to China’s string of pearls: as China’s influence rises in India’s South Asian backyard, India is upgrading its ties in East Asia. In just the past three months, top Indian military leaders have visited Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.
India’s engagement with Vietnam has been perhaps the most profound. Both countries fought wars with China in recent history (1962 for India and 1979 for China) and both continue to have territorial disputes with Beijing. Both militaries also operate predominantly with Soviet and Russian-supplied hardware, facilitating defense cooperation. India has upgraded and repaired Vietnamese MiG 21 planes and provided spare parts for the Vietnamese navy. Additionally, last month Indian Defense Minister AK Antony became the first defense minister to ever visit South Korea and the head of India’s air force led an Indian delegation to Japan the same month for the first-ever military-to-military talks between the two countries. (Rediff October 7, 2010)
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