A sad day in Pakistan

Yesterday, in my eyes, the United States stepped over the line and became a terrorist state.

The CIA sent war drones to bomb a village in Pakistan where they believed the second in command to Bin Laden was present.

The last time that the US bombed this man they blew up his house,killed his wife and children but missed him.

This time they killed 18 people, many of them women and children and wounded more.

Up until now I’d thought that Bush’s "War"on terror was a marketing spin to give him the remit to act on a war footing without the requirement to actually declare war on anybody.

Now I see that it goes deeper than that. Some parts of the US government now feel able to take military action against any town or village in which they believe their enemy resides. At one time this would have been on the I-don’t-believe-that edge of a Tom Clancy novel. Now it is official policy.

Here’s how it seems to me.

The US has attacked an ally, an ally that has nuclear weapons, an ally that was already having problems holding back fundamentalists segments of their society, an ally that has a history of military coups.

This will cause huge problems in Pakistan. It also has to raise the question about what the US would do if they believed an enemy was in France (who, like Pakistan, have nuclear weapons, are not part of NATO and have a problem with Muslim fundamentalists in a secular state).

What makes this worse is that the US executed its attack using the CIA – not the US Army. A generation fed on “Alias” might not be aware of this but the CIA is distrusted and hated throughout the world, including America’s allies. It is an organisation with a history of screw-ups, torture, sponsorship of proxy wars, attempted assignations and a complete inability to protect America from terrorist attacks.

The fact that the US used unmanned drones so that there was not the slightest risk of American body bags on TV threatens to turn acts of war into a video game.

It wasn’t a game for the men women and children the CIA killed yesterday.

This attack is so stupid and so pointless that it makes me weep with frustration, anger and grief.

This is unacceptable.

This will breed hatred of America, weaken alliance, and promote Bin Laden’s cause.

This should see the US facing censure at the United Nations

This turns America into a terrorist state.

My best hope is that Congress will repdudiate this action and show the world that America is still part of the international community and hasn't become simply a rich warlord.