U.S. drones attacked the Pakistani village of Mirali on Saturday. According to the American press, a pair of missiles from the unmanned aircraft killed "at least 25 militants." In the local media, the dead were simply described as "29 tribesmen present there."

That simple difference in description underlies a serious problem in the campaign against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. To Americans, the drones over Pakistan are terrorist-killers. In Pakistan, the robotic planes are wiping out neighbors. Which is why America needs to "declare a moratorium on drone strikes into Pakistan," counterinsurgency experts Andrew Exum and David Kilcullen writes in today's New York Times. (It's an argument Kilcullen has been advancing for months, starting with a Danger Room interview and testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in early February.)

Imagine, for example, that burglars move into a neighborhood. If the police were to start blowing up people’s houses from the air, would this convince homeowners to rise up against the burglars? Wouldn’t it be more likely to turn the whole population against the police? And if their neighbors wanted to turn the burglars in, how would they do that, exactly? Yet this is the same basic logic underlying the drone war.

"The drone campaign is in fact part of a larger strategic error — our insistence on personalizing this conflict with Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Devoting time and resources toward killing or capturing “high-value” targets — not to mention the bounties placed on their heads — distracts us from larger problems, while turning figures like Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the Pakistani Taliban umbrella group, into Robin Hoods," the pair add.

Killing Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, for example, "bought only 18 days of quiet before Al Qaeda returned to operations under new leadership."

This is not to suggest that killing terrorists is a bad thing — on the contrary. But it’s not the only thing that matters, and over-emphasizing it wastes resources... Having Osama bin Laden in one’s sights is one thing. Devoting precious resources to his capture or death, rather than focusing on protecting the Afghan and Pakistani populations, is another. The goal should be to isolate extremists from the communities in which they live. The best way to do this is to adopt policies that build local partnerships. Al Qaeda and its Taliban allies must be defeated by indigenous forces — not from the United States, and not even from Punjab, but from the parts of Pakistan in which they now hide. Drone strikes make this harder, not easier.

Interestingly, America just put in charge of the war effort in the region the general most famous for nailing Zarqawi . Will he put top priority on winning over the people – or pursuing high-value targets?

[Photo: USAF]

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