If I am walking in the market, I have this fear that maybe the person walking next to me is going to be a target of the drone. If I’m shopping, I’m really careful and scared. If I’m standing on the road and there is a car parked next to me, I never know if that is going to be the target. Maybe they will target the car in front of me or behind me. Even in mosques, if we’re praying, we’re worried that maybe one person who is standing with us praying is wanted. So, wherever we are, we have this fear of drones.
From Living under Drones, an account of the impact US drone strikes are having on civilian life in the Pakistani Federally Administered Tribal Area. Read it. All of it.
One of the things that struck me most is the severe impact on civic life and education. The report describes three attacks in particular; the first, on March 17, 2011, was a strike on a jirga, a meeting of elders and community members to resolve disputes and make decisions regarding community affairs. This meeting was to settle a dispute regarding a nearby mine. The community was doing what it does — gathering together to settle the matter peacefully and avoid greater unrest and difficulties in the area — and the US bombed them, killing 42 and wounding 14 more. Among the dead were all the elders gathered for the meeting.
Theoretically, the US is wanting to promote peace and democracy in Pakistan (and Afghanistan). How does bombing peaceful civic meetings and judicial processes do anything but directly undermine such goals?