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EPA / Saood Rehman
Imran Khan, head of opposition political party Tehrik-e-Insaf, speaks to supporters during a protest march toward the troubled South Waziristan region in Pakistan on Sunday.
Pakistani security forces blocked a convoy carrying thousands of Pakistanis and a small contingent of U.S. anti-war activists from entering a lawless tribal region along the border with Afghanistan on Sunday to protest American drone strikes.
The group, led by cricket-star-turned-politician Imran Khan, was turned back just miles from the border of South Waziristan. Khan, leader of the Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) party, was briefly detained. He was later released and sent back toward Tank district along with the protesters.
Pakistan's military and the civilian government publicly complain that the U.S. strikes - aimed at remnants of al-Qaida and the Taliban - infringe the country's sovereignty and cause civilian casualties. Yet the government has taken little concrete action against the strikes.
Khan, who blames the government for allowing the U.S. to operate in the country, had planned to lead the protest from the capital into South Waziristan, a tribal area frequently hit by the drone strikes.
But authorities blocked the protesters' path with shipping containers on the highway. After several delays the army told protesters it was unsafe to be on the road after dark and they turned back.
"The drones are inhumane," Khan said, donning a white turban as he stood on a vehicle in the town of Tank, surrounded by thousands of protesters.
"Are these people not humans? These humans have names. Drone attacks are a violation of human rights," he said.
Government officials and PTI leaders said a large number of security personnel were deployed on the Tank-Jandola road.
The PTI workers said when their convoy led by Khan entered South Waziristan, the soldiers stopped his vehicle and took it away.
"Imran Khan's vehicle was leading a motorcade of peace march toward his last destination Kotkai in South Waziristan after crossing over several barricades set up by the government to stop them from proceeding towards Waziristan. The security forces took him into custody and later freed him and returned all participants of the peace march to Tank," a PTI activist, Hussain Shah, told NBC News by telephone.
Senior PTI leader Shah Mahud Qureshi said the military officials told protesters that the road toward Kotkai, in South Waziristan, is dilapidated and it would be better for them to go back.
"We decided to peacefully return and organize (a) rally in Tank," the party leader said.
A group of 32 American anti-drone activists will join a march to Pakistan's tribal areas, where U.S. strikes have killed thousands of people over the last eight years. NBC News Amna Nawaz spoke to some of them.
About 30 Americans traveled to Pakistan to take part in the protest and apologize for the strikes to men and women who had been maimed or lost family members.
"We have to put pressure on the United States government," said Billy Kelly, a 69-year-old Vietnam veteran from New York.
Americans ignore 'great risks,' travel to Pakistan to protest US drone strikes
The United States says the strikes have killed top Taliban and al-Qaida commanders and civilian casualties are minimal. But it refuses to say how targets are selected or how the military determines whether the dead were fighters or civilians.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which tracks drone strikes, said between 1,232-1,366 people had been killed since the strikes began in 2004. Between 474-884 were believed to be civilians, it said.
A recent report, Living Under Drones, a study by law professors at Stanford and New York Universities, said that large swathes of Pakistan's tribal areas were terrorized by the drones.
Civilians were scared to go to school or work in case they were targeted, the report said.
Getting accurate data on casualties and the effects of drones is extremely difficult since the government allows few foreigners into the tribal areas and the Taliban often seal off the sites of strikes. Drones also often attack people arriving at the site of the strike.
The march highlighted the way that drones complicate the Pakistani government's already uneasy relationship with the United States. Americans often justify the strikes by saying Pakistan is unable or unwilling to crush the insurgency.
Images of daily life, political pursuits, religious rites and deadly violence.
"The government is making pro forma protests but Imran has shown the world he will do something," said Shamsad Ahmed Khan, a former foreign secretary.
He noted the government declared a national day of protests over a blasphemous film last month, but it had never called for such a protest over the drone strikes.
Some Pakistanis, however, questioned why the marchers were not talking about atrocities by the Taliban or the Pakistani army, both of which have killed far more people than the drone strikes.
Columnist Saroop Ijaz said that the Taliban frequently and deliberately target civilians by bombing hospitals, schools, funerals and shrines.
"Drone attacks began and continue because of the ideology of murder and not the other way around," he wrote in the Express Tribune.
The Taliban denounced the march as political theater ahead of next year's elections and condemned Khan and his party as "secular and liberal.”
NBC News’ Mushtaq Yusufzai and Waj Khan and Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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Leave a Comment:
If the Pakistani government would try to root out the terrorists living on the border, the drones would evevtually be called off.
Until then, we should keep our promise to countries that protect these criminals.
From the article:
At least some Pakistanis understand this better than some Americans Here is another journalist who understands the real story behind the drone strikes:
http://blogs.reuters.com/pakistan/2012/10/03/living-under-drones-the-anti-drone-campaign-can-do-damage-too/
Ino Yamachi, in your wildest dreams! Pakistan is living on hand outs and does not have the ability or the guts to tame the people living in that area and you have the audacity to say what you said. We have to commend our troops and the CIA for taking these guys out. While these guys are not scared of the Pakistani army they run for their lives @!$%#ting red hot bricks when they see a drone taking a dump. I am glad there is someone who can stand up to them and it is clearly us and not the Pakistanis. If you are a Pakistani sympathizer, then go live in waziristan.
Pakistan is the epicenter of the world's terrorism. There are numerous terror training camps there, along with several terrorist groups which are based in Pakistan. (Including AlQueda, Haqqani, taliban, Lakshar, etc.) The drone program is great, and seems to be working.
Until the Pakistani government does something to root out the terrorists operating from their country the drone strikes need to continue. The only reason they started was the inability or unwillingness of the Pakistani government to address the problem and they are the only ones that can bring about an end to the need for the strikes. Any Americans who went to Pakistan to participate in this protest should either be refused reentry into the US or arrested for treason when they get back. By protesting the drone strikes they are supporting the terrorists and need to be treated accordingly. Maybe the Taliban will take them hostage while they are there and they will get a first hand taste of why the drone strikes are needed.
These people are traitors. They should have their citizenship revoked and be barred from re-entering the country.
Even the people they are supposedly trying to help don't want them.
Well, yeah. At least some in that country know who to point the finger at. It's not like we're bombing these people for fun. Don't they ever ask why we're doing it? Do they think we just don't like them?
The Paki army just grudgingly allows the "government" to pretend to be in charge. That army is still at war with India, and needs what we call "terrorists" to fight their proxy wars. For us it's a no win situation in either 'stans. Best we can do is just keep killing the badder bad guys while putting the least number of our guys in harms way. Spooks n drones.
About time the Pakistanis did something right for a change. Now if they would be so kind as to deport the Code Pink anti-war fanatics to another country other than the U.S., that would be good!
Code Pink? Code Stupid would be more precise. Please, let Code Pink into those Taliban controlled areas, perhaps they would change their minds, being beheaded often creates a serious and radical change of mind.
IY seems to be a big fan of Pakistan while hating Israel. Funny that she defends the Partition of 1947 that saw India carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey and displaced possibly up to 15 million people while spewing hatred against the re-creation of a former Kingdom that occurred a year later.
Amazing how the former Kingdom has flourished on that tiny piece of real estate that means so much to so many. Mind boggling the contributions to mankind that have come out of that country all while under constant threat from it's "neighbors" - a tiny country with zero oil.
Compare it to the huge section of India carved out to form yet one more islamic country - a country that couldn't even maintain it's own government, fell into civil strife which formed yet another country in the east and their most notable contribution to mankind is the taliban.
Yeah...I can definitely see where IY would support Pakistan and scorn Israel...
oh, man...my sides hurt from laughing...
Adam - excellent link, BTW and a fine good morning to all of you other racist Israel supporters (which includes me). ☺
""Are these people not humans? These humans have names. Drone attacks are a violation of human rights," he said."
Since when these Paki Islamic religious Nazis have become humans?
British invented Pakistan, a pure Islamic nation, in 47.
Within two years through massive genocides of minorities like Hindus and Sikhs, they brought down their percentage from about 24 percent to less than three percent.
Did the madness of Paki Islamic religious Nazis end there?
They went after minority Muslim sects like Shiites (18 percent), Sufis (love and dance fooling version of Islam) and Ahmedias and tribes like Baloochs, Pashtoons and others.
On Fridays, their mosques are blown by suicide blasts and those injured are killed in hospitals by blasts in hospitals too.
In most of the Islamic radical and terrorist activities all over the world, there is a Paki hand. Even 9/11 had a Paki hand.
Declare Pakistan a terrorist nation and close the gates on Pakis, liabilities and curses on earth, all over the world for world peace.
Ino, the only one coming off as really racist here is you! Your obvious hatred of Jews and Israel is only making your stupidity more apparent to all here. I say stupidity because ignorance is forgivable because someone does something because they do not know better but are capable of learning. Stupidity is unforgivable because they know better and do it anyway!
Jonathan, don't forget to include the Hazaras, Christians and Jews in Pakistan.
Funny but these protesters don't seem the least bit interested in the minority populations that have suffered terribly. Where were these protesters before America got involved??? Guess it's just not fashionable to protest evil.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/02/0214_030214_genghis.html
http://www.hazara.net/persecution/pak-persecution.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Pakistan.html
http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=47859
Ain't that the truth!!! Cheap troll derail.
I understand these peoples argument, but until they help themselves and takeout the terrorists that are killing them, Drone on. Drones kill far less civilans than the terrorsists.
Yes, the targets of the drones are indeed human beings, but so are the people who are their targets. Stopping a vicious, self-sustaining cycle of violence requires restraint on both sides. Unfortunately far too many are far too in thrall to their secular and religious idiologies, cosmologies and party-lines to pay any attention to mere human conscience.
I think one can plausibly argue that restraint is precisely what allows these kinds of conflicts to drag on for decades. In the long run, it might actually save human lives and resources to annihilate an enemy once and for all rather than play this cat-and-mouse game that allows war to drag on indefinitely in the name of sparing the lives of "innocent civilians".
So it might actually be better in most cases for the stronger element to "take the gloves off" so to speak. This would give war a finality to it, a clear ending, so we wouldn't have to be sitting here 10, 11, 12...30 years later talking about "indegenous forces" "timetables" "collateral damage" and all the other hot air and obsfucation that comes with these low-level conflicts...
Just get it over with an flatten the place already...
Travis, I totally agree with you. Just be done with this krap and come back. We have a stupid strategy of winning over hearts and minds by trying to save the innocent and in the bargain end up with over 2000 killed. This is senseless, get all our troops back and use the drone to our advantage. Spot a bad buy, just take out the whole village. If a village has a bad guy then in all probability there are more bad guys around. There are women this bad guy must have slept with to create more bad guys or more bad women who in turn create more bad guys and women. Leaving the women and children out just makes the problem recursive, because they keep on breeding the pests we have to take care of.
uramg and travis are example of people we do not want to let into political positions ever. I find their comments to be sick and completely disgusting. If they live in America they sure are not any type of American I want to live next to and they do not believe in Constitutional due process either it seems.
They essentially say "if you associate with terrorists, even if you have never committed a terrorist act, we are going to kill you." They would make us into the terrorists attacking innocent civilians just for being associated with a possible terror suspect. This would only lead to more terrorists because it would galvanize the extremists against the West and even draw in the moderates against us as well.
Speaking of Constitutional due process, isn't it funny that ordinary Americans have watch their country turn in to a police state because of the foreign policy of its elite leaders and because the Pakis & Saudis like to play a double-game?
Last time I checked, countries are not subject to Constitutional due process, or has our "corporations are people" logic gotten so knotted up that terrorist-supporting governments now have the rights of Americans?
Either the Pakis are exercising sovereignty over their own territory or they are not. If they are, then they are supporting our enemies. If they are not, then someone else needs to exercise sovereignty.
Pakis have crossed all limits of acceptable norms and behaviors all over the world. Most of them have become ungrateful and backstabbing liabilities and curses on the societies and nations they are in.
They are classic example of religious madness making people act like a bunch of savages. Whole of Pakistan has become a hating and killing fields.
British invented Pakistan and the US kept it in the map just like Saudi Arabia. Just examine the backstabbings these ungrateful people have become.
In Afghanistan, Pakis have backstabbed the US and NATO forces big time. Half of NATO forces deaths are due to ungrateful and backstabbing Pakis.
When the NATO forces were entering Kandahar in 2001, Pakis airlifted key al-Qaida, Taliban, ISI and others militants by back door from Kandahar.
This includes Mullah Omar, Osama and many including Paki Haqqani militant network leaders.
Hope people remember about Pakis sheltering Osama.
These Paki Islamic religious Nazis don't bother about their people and they are into reckless killing games in the name of jihad.
Drone attacks are not enough. To reduce NATO forces losses, carpet bomb Paki militant areas just like 1991 Iraqi war.
Or else just get out of Afghanistan right now and keep away from Pakistan.
@Jonathan1982062
Pakis have crossed all limits of acceptable norms and behaviors all over the world. Most of them have become ungrateful and backstabbing liabilities and curses on the societies and nations they are in
Every time Pakistan or Afghanistan's name appears, seems it gets under your skin. Knowing so much about that part of the world and spewing venom against muslims,I am inclined to believe you are a diehard, fanatic Hindu hiding behind a pseudonym of Jonathan. You probably are a computer techie who has managed to get in the USA, stealing our job.
IKN: I feel it is my duty to make public aware of double games by ungrateful and backstabbing Sunni Saudis and Pakis.
I oppose interventions in Syria and Iran. I opppose sanctions on Iranian oil and manipulating oil prices higher and higher just as during Iraqi wars. Sunni barbaric and beastly one-way traffic and bigoted Sunni Saudi and co Islamic religious Nazis are repeating what was done during Iraqi wars through their puppets/agents in the US, Britain and West.
You can term me a die-hard infidel. I support Shiites in their struggles against barbaric and beastly seventh century Islamic religious Nazis, Sunnis. I consider Shiites less dangerous and not immediate threats to world peace and economic stability as Sunnis.
If I had opposed Iraqi wars, then I would have been beaten to pulp by Sunni Saudi puppets like oil companies, lobbyists, extremist Jewish lobbys and neo-cons.
See the damages done by Iraqi wars and Afghan war. Now the same bunch are no where to be seen. At least, they could plan how the NATO forces can run!!
Followers of Islamic cult, especially Sunni Saudi inspired Islamic radicals and militants (al-Qaida, Salaffi, Wahhabi, MB, Taliban and other label ones), are fast marching backwards to their seventh century desert tribal days.
They are indulging in rapings, lootings, killings and genocides of non-Muslims (Darfur, S. Sudan, Nigeria and spreading like wild fire in many regions and Muslims (Libya, Mali, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other places).
Sunni Saudi backed Salaffi and MB new chapters are opening up in Egypt. Just watch the fate of Christians, women and Israel as the time goes by.
Even in Syria, if Assad is overthrown by Sunni Islamic religious Nazis like al-Qaida, MB, the conditions of Christians will be unbearable just like Iraq.
In Afghanistan, half of NATO forces deaths are due to Pakis.
These two "strategic allies" have crippled US and allies so badly that US and allies can't do much anywhere and anything!
I helped the US keep the competitive edge in ICT field. Liabilities and curses on earth like Pakis, Bangladeshis piggy backed highly qualified people like I as Asians and brought bad names to all Asians. I also lost my job to Indians.
In a New York bar, though I hate Pakis to the core I was addressed as a "Paki" too in late 90s. You can imagine the damages Pakis have done in the US. After they came, travels became a torture. Does US, Britain and West need such liabilities and curses?
What is wrong in stating realities? One can't shut down one's freedom of expression by attributing all sorts of motives as Pakis do!
chefaz: I know about the Hazaras, Jews and Christians too. Northern Alliance in Afghanistan of Hazaras were fighting Taliban in before the NATO forces stepped in.
Sorry about posting along with this, as I am having troubles in posting my comments.
Okay.... Someone out there's ITCHING to say it...
Get it over with...
Okay...you're absolutely right...Go Broncos!
by wiping out Paki Islamic militant areas out of the map and kicking out all Paki Torjan horses and traitors from non-Muslim nations. We don't need them in our nations.
KHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!
*phew* I feel better now.....
Useful idiots...
Get that stupid white women out of there
We need to not let these women back to the US. Let a drone take a dump on them and be done with them.
People wake the hell up. These peole don't care about others. They put bombs on childern and women, in trucks and cars, blow up innocent people, all in the name of the FALSE prophet mohammed. It's time we pull our troos out of Pakisstan and Afganistan and level them with NUKES...
Why are these people protesting drones and not poppy fields, drug dealers and suicde bombers or the killing of Americam soldiers or diplomates........
"We need to not let these women back to the US. Let a drone take a dump on them and be done with them"
What a jackass
"Wow, No wonder Pakistanis are smarter than average white Americans."
ROTF LMFAO! You are too stupid to live, Ino.
We criticize the middle eastern people for killing and destroying too much...
Read these comments above and below,
It seems americans might be more bloodthirsty than your average middleastern, just too much a coward to do anything about it.
Andrew I think that you are the only one talking any sense in this entire discussion.
Ok, I'll say it because it's just too easy. The Taliban doesn't like what a group of people say that they don't agree with, they're "secular and liberal". The American Taliban doesn't like what a group of people say that they don't agree with, they're " Anti Christian Liberals"
Just because it was easy doesn't mean it's not true.
You make a valid point just because it was easy doesn't mean its not true. Now let me make an equally valid point just because it was easy doesn't mean it is true.
Imran Khan is a piece of @!$%#. He is a slimy politician who changes his position constantly to meet his goal of being elected. In his younger days he was a womanizer frequenting bars and living life in the fast lane with a very active night life. After retiring from Cricket he has joined politics and to appease his countrymen he behaves like a devout muslim and denies his past. This guy is a two timer and not to be trusted. The Taliban have judged him right and called this protest a drama before the upcoming elections in Pakistan. These 32 idiots from the US who have gone there for the protest are either stupid to the core or are sympathizers of terrorists. If they are the latter we should not let them come back to the US.
This area in Pakistan - waziristan - harbors savages. If pakistan cannot tame them then we have to do everything possible to curb them. The US is doing its best in a tight situation which needs to be understood by every citizen of the US. While the Taliban & Al Qaeda attack civilians on purpose, we do our best not to hurt civilians but under the circumstances that prevail it is hard to avoid collateral damage. This place is so badly infested with these barbaric people that the so called innocent women could be the ones producing the scum that we are fighting and the innocent kids may be the ones who grow up to be the scum. So, while the extras may look innocent it probably is a blessing in disguise they are perishing with the bad guys since there is a high probability these women are the production machines of the bad guys and the kids grow up to be the bad guys. I don't see the need for any sympathy for these people. If they don't want to be killed by drones it is up to them to lead a normal peaceful life instead of what we experience.
if you will not read his comment, how do you know it is "racist".
Mooselambs read minds now?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA...
Since when was any politician not slimy? At least Imran Khan is secure and liberal. If I had to, I'd vote for him over the Taliban supporters that are currently in power.
elberethstar,
all you have to do is read one of his other posts on this thread. uran is one of those Americans that has no problems killing people, even though they may be innocent, just because of geography.
You are the dumbest mofo i have ever had the pleasure of reading if you honestly believe that protesting against drone strikes out of fear for civilian casualties warrants keeping someone from living in the united states.If you honestly believe that these people should be condemned from there own country for having an opinion which is one of the most basic human rights for which this country was shaped from then you are the sympathiser not them.
Ino
Please Stop trolling, trying to make everything about Israel is making you sound like a whining Palestinian. If you want to discuss everything about Palestinian suicide bombers then go to another site and annoy those people
I've heard a number of interviews with Imran Khan on the BBC and in US media. He's one of the sanest politicians I've heard in a long time, and far smarter than the Christian Taliban in the US which controls the GOP. Educated at Oxford, If I recall.
You are a little female dog skrekk,oh i hope
Time for an army of lesbian Jews to invade Pakistan and assault them wearing pig-blood lubricated strap-on dildos.
Ino, you just don't get it do you? The only one sounding really racist here is you! Playtime on the computer is over. It's time to take your medication and go back to your room for the night. Adults are talking now.
Perhaps Code Pink should dress up as giant vaginas? That should appeal to the Taliban.
Ino Yamachi banned, ending a short career of trolling just about everyone, including people interested in 9/11.
elberethstar-2272598 banned, bigotry, flameout.
pained1, you're suspended for a week for violating #1 of the Code of Honor.
Skrekk, just proves that Oxford will allow anyone to attend if your family is rich and influential enough! Other than that, your statement means nothing.
Ino, there are people on the left and right that don't like each other. Then there are anti American POS' like you that no American likes. Go the hell back under whatever rock you crawled out from under.
Inos is full of hot air
Eric, you are going under assumption that Ino is American. At this point I have serious doubts on that one!
All these innocent people being killed over the past 4 years.Where are the street protesters,the sit -ins in college administration offices.Where is all the bluster normally seen by the left.They are awfully quite on this subject.Haven't seen or heard of a single US protest regarding the lose of peoples rights,the human rights being violated.The innocent women and children being killed! Why is that?Oh,that right,when their side does it,it ok;it save American lives.When the president is Republican,then the baby killing rhetoric comes out.Duplicitous,at least!
Who are the innocent people? We are killing the terrorists. Incidentally women and children go - the women produce the terrorists and the children grow up to be terrorists. There are no innocents there.
Just because they are not wearing uniforms, that does not make them innocent. At the very least they are condoning and aiding the infiltrators.
If those people didn't want us over there, they could have left the World Trade Center and the Pentagon alone.
You are both to be commended. I mean i have heard of survived abortions but to actually wittiness it first hand is simply remarkable.
Too bad,I was hoping Code Pink would have been renamed "Code Grey",the normal change of a body's color from life to death!Why doesn't Code Pink set up a march or protest INSIDE America.They managed to have a number when Bush was president.This would be great time to get attention but any protest by the left now has to be done in some obscure,very remote,isolated areas of the world,where no cameraman or radio and tv technician would dare go.Had their protest been allowed and they survived,it would have been like a tree falling in the forest with no one around to hear it!Oh the left! Dont you just want to give them a big hug and kiss and thank them for their one sided approach to protesting.It's ok for Obamy to kill kids and women but not Bush.Obamy has killed hundreds more than Bush did! Why no protest in America.You would think there is enough college kids out there wanting justice for these people.
Wondering how this story ended up on MSNBC.. They usually do not allow any story that might reflect badly on the on "the great one's" policies. That is why we have been under a media blackout for the last four years.
Interesting ...did I miss the blackout on the rest of the world's news media?
If you don't like the content, change the channel and be happy you have the right.
What are you babbling about
Yea just turn to fox news like we already know your going to do and shut up
“The United States says the strikes have killed top Taliban and al-Qaida commanders and civilian casualties are minimal. But it refuses to say how targets are selected or how the military determines whether the dead were fighters or civilians.”
Now this should be the real issue, not whether or not drones are good or bad, but who is selecting their targets, how are they doing it and how is their effect being assessed?
Umm, Obama has his personal 'kill' list, he decides who gets 'droned.'
mygirl1
“Umm, Obama has his personal 'kill' list, he decides who gets 'droned.'”
Really? Well thanks for your input but that just leaves the questions of who’s compiling his kill list, how are they choosing who goes on it and how is the effect of their “execution/murder” being assessed?
Losmuertos: Now, those are excellent questions. Obama personally oversees the kill list, where the people who are on it come from is not exactly revealed. One can make assumptions like foreign intel, and other facets of 'spycraft.' Obama's White House revealed the 'kill list' personally vetted by Obama information, said information ended up as a piece in the NYTimes.
Do we want to fight them over there? Or wait til they come over here AGAIN. And INO, if they are so great why do they give us free rein to what we want in there country. A small team landed there ( next to a military base ), took about 45 mins ( way to long), and got what they wanted. Now you mean to tell me that good old Pak. leaders knew nothing, or the guards did not have ears that night? HA HA HA. They line their pockets with the money we give them, while letting the general population have enough speeches to feel affective. But if think they are so great go join them, I am sure we will see you in a lense on a drone if you want.
yeah!!! no need for drone strikes if the Pakistani government police those tribal regions but they decided not to do it because those insurgents are their life policy against India!!! So who is guilty here? I take it their government for not doing their job!!! If we get attacked we are coming out to get them plain and simple!!!
The headline reads,"Pakistan halts drone anti-protest led by ex-cricketer Imran Khan", is that English? Shouldn't it be .".......halts anti-drone protest ........."? Com'on, NBC News, you can do better than that.
Imagine - if Mexico was murdering American "Little Eichmann's" of the illicit drug trade'- what our response would be to such outrageous acts?
There would be talk of waging war against Mexico. There would be Congressional and United Nation's speeches condemning the slaughter of innocent American civilians. Our American Patriot Groups would be flocking to the border to defend us. There would be legislation to boycott products made in Mexico.
As such, should we expect Pakistan's response to the murder of its citizens to be any different? Pakistani political leaders are held to account - more so than their American counterparts - for going against public sentiment, and I think they will pay the ultimate price for blocking this - otherwise - peaceful protest.
Pakistani civilians celebrating a marriage ceremony should not be murdered. Innocent Pakistani children should not be blown into bits & pieces because someone in their village is purportedly aiding the Taliban.
Our indiscriminate drone strikes go to the core issue of our rights as citizens of the world. That is, that each individual should be presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. War should be openly waged against combatants, not civilians. Our extrajudicial executions must end, and I am in shock & awe that the Pakistani government would prevent this protest.
Whose side is the Pakistan government on: its citizens who are being coldly murdered by a foreign government, or warmongers in Washington?
Oh, but the Pakistanis are being led by Code Pink, didn't you read the artcile?
The collateral damage caused in a war by any means is horrible. But to target drones alone seems silly: They should protest the entire US war machine to be more accurate. That said, how is their treatment of women as well as their entire primitive worldviews any less humane? Maybe they should include protesting themselves if they want to see a real change.
Countries which harbor international terrorists only have themselves to blame for these aerial drone attacks, if they refuse to allow the international community in to properly police the problem from the ground. - RC
So what were the Americans going to do if they made it to the heart of Waziristan? Hold a photo op with the Taliban? Maybe the Taliban could invite them to the next execution of a 7 year old or shooting of a women in the back of the head.
these jokers just make me laugh!
"Some Pakistanis, however, questioned why the marchers were not talking about atrocities by the Taliban or the Pakistani army..." And the answer is? Waiting, still waiting...
After reading most of the comments here it made me laugh at 1st and then it made me sad. How ignorant people could be? Pakistanis and muslims are so called savages and you are civilized just because you have a higher technology and better means of killing some one? Where NBC gets these people to comment on ever single article, i am sure even Nazis were even less ignorant and brutal than people over here. Ignorance is such a blessing for some people that when ever some one try to enlighten them with something they try to bite him/her back like a crazy dog. You guys are the reason people hate us. Not because we have freedom and we are non muslims but because we are ignorant and we don't want to face the truth that people out there also want their freedom which we are not willing to give them. Now come and tell me how Unamerican i am and i should die and whatever crap you want to drop on me, but you guys are the reason that majority of people think that a common american has the IQ of less than 10 years old kid.Such a shame!!
"Are these people not humans? These humans have names.
No, having a name does not make you human. Decent human beings tolerate other people's, religions, nationalities and so forth. So much of these beings being targeted are scum that the world is better off without.
So please all you moaning, bleeding liberals who think all life is sacred, start using your brains. Murdering, raping and pillaging takes you off the decent list and gets you onto the drone list.
Unlike the idiot terrorists that kill for no good reason and behead people.
Wait until the protestors enter the Taliban controlled region, then send in the drones!