'Who Do the Americans Think They Are?'

Due to American cowardice, U.S. forces rely on aerial bombing to vanquish their adversaries. This is a strategy that has failed repeatedly, just as it failed last week when 18 innocent people were killed. According to this editorial from Pakistan's Frontier Post newspaper, Americans need to keep in mind that 'The people of this country are not children of a lesser god. Their lives are just as priceless.'

EDITORIAL

January 18, 2006

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Who Do the Americans Think They Are? Do they think, just because they are the sole superpower, that they have become the world's overlords and can violate anyone's sovereignty at will? Within days, they have outrageously trespassed on our territory twice with their fighter aircraft and with their inexcusably appalling strafing, have unpardonably killed our innocent children, women and men. Do they think we are their colony or some kind of a banana republic?

Let the American warlords in Afghanistan and their bosses back home in Washington know that we are no one's colony, but an independent nation that holds its sovereignty, freedom and honor dearly. And they must also know that it is not American lives alone that are precious in this world. The people of this country are not children of a lesser god. Their lives are just as priceless. And we hold our compatriots in the tribal areas, who are our flesh and blood, dearest to our hearts. Their brutal slaughter in the criminal strafing by trespassing American aircraft has shocked and outraged every one of us.

The Americans just have no business intruding on our territory. If they had information on some al-Qaeda fugitive hiding in the region, they should have passed it on to our security people - who would have acted on it. After all, some 70,000 of our brave soldiers are deployed there to cope with the aftermath of the cowardice attack by the American invaders of Afghanistan, and they are verifiably acquitting themselves well on this score.

One needs no military tutor to know that for an invasion to succeed, the invaders need to nab their adversary's senior command as quickly as possible. But the American invaders failed to do so. For fear of accumulating their own body bags, American military commanders don't put their soldiers on the ground to do the job, relying instead on aerial bombing to vanquish their enemies.

In the process, they not only let al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters escape, but also their leadership, who then scattered in every direction. And this cowardice of the American invaders is costing us dearly. In flushing out the fugitives who had sneaked into this country's tribal areas, both our military and civilian population are paying a heavy price in precious lives. And while the American warlords and their forces in Afghanistan primarily complain and kill mostly civilians, real progress has been shown only by our military and people. Not only have our security people caught hundreds of fleeing al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters, they have captured dozens of their leaders, including high-ranking ones, and handed them over to the Americans.

So if the American warlords in Afghanistan obtained information that some wanted figure was hiding in our territory, no matter how high that figure was, that intelligence should have been transmitted to our security apparatus for action. One can understand the desire of American commanders to present a big war trophy to their bosses back home, both to spruce up their own battered image after years of failure and to help their political leadership to reverse their own sagging domestic popularity. But in no event should they trifle with this country's sovereignty and territorial sanctity. Their intrusions are, by every definition, criminal, wicked, contemptible and absolutely unacceptable.

The [Pakistan] government should take a very serious notice of these intrusions. No one, whoever he may be, should be allowed to take us for granted. Our sovereignty is too precious a thing to be trifled with. And the lives of our people are too invaluable to become the instrument of any foreigner's agenda, or part of a plan to refurbish someone's tarnished image. Indeed, it is painful to the bone that instead of reacting sharply, our top officials have been rather hedgy on the occasions of both recent American intrusions on our territory.

A few days ago, American aircraft trespassed into North Waziristan and destroyed several dwellings in Sidgai Village, killing at least eight people, including women and children, our officials said that the attack would be investigated, although villagers clearly identified the attackers. The very fact that the government formally lodged a protest later with the American authorities confirms that our people were correct. And now again, while the villagers of Damdola in Bajaur Agency are crying that that attackers were American aircraft that mowed down at least 18 innocent people, including women and children, our leaders are hedgy again. They say they will investigate.

This is not acceptable.

When it comes to our sovereignty and our people's lives, the government must show itself to be acutely sensitive and assertive. Its response must be strong and prompt. The Pentagon in Washington and American military commanders are in denial of the Damdola attack, just as they were of the Sidgai assault. They were as untruthful then as they are now. The government must demand an apology and compensation from Washington for the aggrieved families. And it must tell the Americans in the clearest possible terms that in no event will their breach of our territorial sanctity and slaughter of our people be tolerated in future.