{"id":19439,"date":"2013-04-24T09:15:46","date_gmt":"2013-04-24T17:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=19439"},"modified":"2013-04-24T09:15:46","modified_gmt":"2013-04-24T17:15:46","slug":"the-us-perpetrates-a-boston-bombing-weekly-in-pakistan-yemen-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2013\/04\/24\/the-us-perpetrates-a-boston-bombing-weekly-in-pakistan-yemen-afghanistan\/","title":{"rendered":"The US Perpetrates a Boston Bombing Weekly in Pakistan, Yemen & Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tribesmen

Sadaullah Khan lost both legs and one eye in a 2009 drone strike on his house (Reuters)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Boston Bombings left three dead and more than 100 injured and some have suggested circumventing the rule of law to prosecute the perpetrator. Yet, in Pakistan the unconstitutional drone war continues to kill innocents. On April 14, between 4 and 6 Pakistanis died in drone strike and numerous civilians were injured. Another strike three days later killed 5 more and injured several. Yet there are no protests in America to capture the responsible party, nor will there ever be justice. The people of Waziristan live in constant fear, and face bombings like that of Boston almost weekly.<\/p>\n

The two April strikes both involved significant amounts of terror, with drones \u201chovering over the area\u201d for long periods of time, according to the\u00a0Bureau of Investigative Journalism<\/a>. These drone strikes, contrary to administration claims, rarely<\/a> target \u201chigh-level\u201d members of terrorist organizations, and\u00a0often<\/a>\u00a0\u201cmilitants\u201d include young boys aged 10-16.<\/p>\n

Only recently have we begun to learn of the shady covert drone war. Mark Mazzeti\u2019s recent\u00a0The Way of the Knife<\/a>,\u00a0<\/i>details the beginning: the United States\u00a0became the lapdog<\/a>\u00a0of the Pakistani government, performing a drone strike to kill Nek Muhammed in exchange for access to the airspace<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the government acknowledges that trials would be preferable for the rule of law,\u00a0this heavily redacted report<\/a>\u00a0gives the true reason for the targeted killing program: it\u2019s cleaner, simpler and less embarrassing to just off the suspected terrorists. The government uses mafia logic \u2013 why waste time and energy risking the rule of law when you can just swoop in and launch a smart bomb?<\/p>\n

Farea al-Muslimini\u00a0testified this week to United State Senate<\/a>\u00a0about the \u201cpsychological fear and terror\u201d that his village faces daily after a recent drone strike. He argues that while the strike may be cleaner for the United States government, on the ground it leaves significant psychological scarring. He\u00a0said,<\/a>\u201cThe drone strike [in my village] and its impact tore my heart, much as the tragic bombings in Boston last week tore your hearts and also mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

While we mourn the horrific events in Boston, we must remember that our government perpetrates a Boston bombing weekly in Pakistan, Yemen and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

Sean McElwee has\u00a0previously written for\u00a0<\/em>The Day<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>The\u00a0<\/a>Norwich Bulletin<\/a>\u00a0and on\u00a0<\/em>WashingtonMonthly.com<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>Reason.com<\/a>. He is a\u00a0writer for\u00a0<\/em>The Moderate Voice.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Boston Bombings left three dead and more than 100 injured and some have suggested circumventing the rule of law to prosecute the perpetrator. Yet, in Pakistan the unconstitutional drone war continues to kill innocents. On April 14, between 4 and 6 Pakistanis died in drone strike and numerous civilians were injured. Another strike three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-19439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19439"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19443,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19439\/revisions\/19443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19439"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=19439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}