Or, as Barbarella once said: "I find your love-making a bit too mechanical"
In an interview with Pakistan's Dawn newspaper, General David McKiernan, the Commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan said, "these drones do not come under my command."
It's part of a delicate diplomatic dance surrounding the stepped-up unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) strikes against the Pakistani-based militants who have become one of the leading dangers for coalition forces in Afghanistan. The Washington Post calls it "a don't-ask-don't-tell policy" for the robotic assaults. "The U.S. government refuses to publicly acknowledge the attacks while Pakistan's government continues to complain noisily about the politically sensitive strikes."
This wink-wink-nudge-nudge approach is made easier because the drones hitting Pakistan aren't being operated by the U.S. military, it seems. The Central Intelligence Agency is remotely-flying the UAVs.
UPDATE: "The overwhelming bulk of all activity in Afghanistan since the first U.S. forces went in have been basically under the control of the Central Command," Donald Rumsfeld told Sharon, back in 2002. "An exception has been the armed Predators, which are CIA-operated." |