When Professor Brian Williams said he went into his study of Pakistani tribesmen’s attitudes toward US drone strikes with an “open mind,” it seems like it may have been a little too open to sloganeering and a little too closed to existing data.
Starting with claims that al-Qaeda “took over” the region, Williams concludes that the tribesmen “see the drones as their liberators” despite the massive civilian death toll from the strikes.
Which seems incredible on the surface of it, but is even more so when compared to a US-funded poll from just two weeks ago which showed not only a dramatic majority opposed to the attacks but a solid majority believing the drone strikes justified attacks against the US military.
The fact that the two studies show such starkly different things is perhaps an interesting study in the unreliability of data from such remote areas in and of itself, but there are certain basic understandings about human nature that must underpin such studies, and if data points to a patently absurd conclusion it might warrant a second glance.
The drones have liberated several hundred souls from their earthy containers called bodies. Perhaps, this is the kind of liberation the learned professor is talking about. And, maybe, the tribesmen are happy to get droned so their souls will get liberated. I am sure the professor must have done a thorough study on the tribal mindset. The good thing is that you can do such study by just sitting in your study room, just need a pencil and paper and an imaginative mind.
Professor Brian Williams = Shill War Whore
On second thought, I apologize for insulting whores everywhere.
The CIA's Covert Predator Drone War in Pakistan, 2004-2010: The History of an Assassination Campaign Author: Brian Glyn Williams
This article provides the first overview of the CIA's secret drone campaign against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan's tribal areas from its origins in 2001's Operation Enduring Freedom to the end of 2010. In the process it addresses the spatial dimensions of the campaign (where are the strikes being directed and where do the drones fly from), Pakistani reactions to this threat to both their sovereignty and an internal Taliban enemy, technological developments and Taliban and Al Qaeda responses to this unprecedented airborne assassination campaign. While the debate on this issue has often been driven by the extremes which either support the campaign as the most effective tool in killing terrorists or condemn it for driving Pakistanis to new levels of anti-Americanism, this article points out a third path. Namely, that many Pakistani Pashtun tribesmen living in the targeted areas support the strikes against the Taliban who have terrorized them in recent years.
Single Article Purchase: US$30.00. (I will pass on that)
I would like to know how they did the study during the floods while any groups of multilingual Pakistanis were being drone bombed as possible Jihadis. The methodology must be interesting. I still remember that incident when some American 'Human Terrain Specialist' (military sociologist) got lit on fire which then provoked a gun battle trying to poll locals in Kabol about gas prices.
There are no "new levels of anti-Americanism " caused by the drone attacks . We are hated for a host of other reasons with or without drones . That argument is absurd and naive. Any freindship real or percieved with India for one . The whole purpose for the creation of the Taliban to begin with was to harass India in Kashmir .Go study your history before making any for UNINFORMED statements
I, for one, welcome our machine overlords.
.. Such an utterance from a tribal Afghan to the effect that the drone attacks are seen as some sort of liberation tactic, even as scores die under the rubble of a village is a travesty. Instead it seems to me like another case of a Dodgy Dossier and demonstrates how conveniently the intelligence is used to fit the pattern
The author of this study, Brian Glyn Williams, is not just an academic, he's an in-house "expert" at the Jamestown Foundation, a thinktank truly stuck in the headiest days of the Cold War. Seeing American "vital interests" in the Caucasus, fearing jihadis under every haystack, pushing to expand NATO to include Micronesia, they make most paleocene fossils look young and spry in comparison. Board members include many a rightwing expansionist wing-nut, from Alfred Regnery to KT McFarland.
Sounds like he is another fellow for the tenth circle of hell for betrayers of the ideals, he is a betrayer of the ideal of science and research, probably being tormented by the greatest of the betrayers of ideals, god who betrayed the ideal of good.
And perhaps doctorate degrees should be revoked on the basis of malpractice.
lol….you must also consider that given the suffering Al Queda inflicts on the villages and peoplethey infest , maybe ….just maybe , Al Queda getting their arses bombed out of those places , is considered by those people and villages to be worth it .
You all may say what you will about Falluja , but the inhavbitants themselves loathed Al Queda .
But you can also ignore the stark reality of what the Taliban inflicted upon [and still continue to do ] the Afghans themselves .
So I guess that possibility is unacceptable , because it does not agree with your politics , which by the way is totally meaningless to those who have suffered [ and continue to suffer ]at the hands of Al Queda and the Taliban .
Part of my "politics" understands there is neither treasure nor blood enough within my country to rescue the entire world.
Allow me to add this for you to consider: When I served it was understood that to destroy the enemy with a cheaper cost-effective device, i.e., shooting down aircraft costing millions with a weapon that costs thousands, inflicts grave unsustainable economic damage upon "the enemy".
Now tell me, setting morality arguments aside, how this report – if even remotely accurate – of $50 millions per claimed Taliban killed is sustainable?
you make a serious assumption , and an erroneous one , since when is cost effectiveness associated with destroying your enemy ? since you have decided that war is based on cost , what then is the cost for UN and American lives taken by Al Queda and taliban crossing into Afghanistan , murdering those forces then scurrying back to what they belive is safe haven in Pakistan ?
What a foolish counterpoint !
"…free will"??!! Are you insane? When did people X ever decide to mass murder their neighbors and loot their property? I suggest the answer Never. Gov'ts coerce people into these acts.
are you serious ? are you living in a cave ? [no pun intended ]What :government is coercing Al Queda and the Taliban to slaughter their neighbors ? Which if you hadn't noticed , is exactly what they are doing …….you're deluded man . Try reading the Al Queda "magazine " Inspire " , merely as an example , as if hat alone is even necessarry to prove the point ,
You're out in left field pal .And obviously unaware of what's really going on .
MEN CHOOSE TO SLAUGHTER , and for religious or ideological reasons , they are NOT coerced by their governments
How many Americans were liberated by Mr.Osama's drones?
Wrong question …..how many of our soldiers will be spared by them . Villagers infested with al queda become drone targets , the people in them get the message , al queda in addition to subjecting them to abuse , find themselves free of them when the drones zero in on that presence . It is totally plausible they see it as a liberation of sorts .
Who the hell is doing polls in the tribal areas of Pakistan?
Brilliant analogy , is that where your brain is ? I guess you know nothing of the life people had under the Taliban , you know amputations at half-time during soccer matches , getting whipped for laughing aloud , no music and a plethora of inhuman barbaric religiously inspired smotherings of the human spirit . It's all well documented so don't take my word for it .
The thought of drones raining down on your tormentors, driving them out , may very well be "a good thing " for those oppressed and the price paid may be acceptable. That is in no way an absurd conclusion as the author purports .
The administration gave me service past the call of obligation by ordering a sumptuous birthday cake in my honor and providing a reception following the ebook signing. In keeping with the management, increasingly readers are ordering their books on line or downloading them electronically. Although McNally Robinson did every thing proper, the competition from these electronic ebook dealers was just an excessive amount of. Drawer Bot