The Pakistani War

Noah Shachtman at Danger Room poses a highly provocative question:

The US and Pakistan have just drawn up a fresh list of terrorist targets in Pakistan for further Preditor drone strikes.  The list now includes individuals with no connection to the war in Afghanistan, targeting groups known to operate in only Pakistan-based operations. So does that mean we’re at war in Pakistan?  Since we’re now giving the Pakistani government a hand in quashing their internal adversaries, aren’t we expanding the original intent of the drone program’s mission?

This move seems consistent with the Obama administration’s regional approach we keep hearing about, but I worry that it’s a bit of a tone-deaf one.

Part of reason Pakistan can’t focus on its domestic insurgents is because the majority of Islamabad’s military is perched in Kashmir staring across at India.  If Pakistani/Indian tensions were decreased, Pakistan could devote more effort to its internal issues.  Because the Obama administration knows that real peace with India is quite a ways off, it has apparently offered to handle a lot of the dirty work instead.

That’s why the new drone program must be coupled it with a significant diplomatic effort at Pakistani/Indian peace.  If it isn’t, then we’re sending the wrong signals to Islamabad - essentially “we’ll shoot the bad guys because we know you have other problems.” Giving the Pakistanis an excuse to not get their own house in order is dangerous.

Which leads me to a second caveat:  the American military has to be really, really careful about mission creep.  The military, as the Pentagon thinks it believes, can’t kill its way out of this problem, but this expanded target list only perpetuates the mindset that we can.

There have been stories floating around about how the economic crisis has occupied so much of President Obama’s time that he hasn’t turned much attention to foreign affairs.  An issue like this should draw some Presidential notice - if we’re going to have a whole-of-government approach to Afghanistan, let’s make sure the drone program meets both our immediate and long-term needs.