Unilateral U.S. drone strikes are however contributing to anti-Americanism on Pakistani street riots following a string of controversies including the Raymond Davis murder case and Salalah attack by U.S. forces which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers yet garnered no apology. Mainstream political forces in Pakistan are now competing to exploit that popular sentiment for political gains as elections approach. For U.S. policymakers to think that the continuation of drone strikes inside Pakistan is not endangering a relationship with Pakistan at a time when ISAF is drawing the curtains on its involvement in Afghanistan would be serious misreading of political developments inside Pakistan. A separation of Pakistan and U.S. ties at this stage of the campaign in Afghanistan possesses strong potential to alter the endgame scenario in Afghanistan at the expense of U.S. interests and complicate its drawdown strategy.
The issue of unilateral U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan is speeding towards an important juncture. Critics contend that a U.S. drone program which keeps no record of civilian casualties or shares surveillance footage collated by its drones prior to kinetic operations for scrutiny may be killing indiscriminately and be in contravention of Washington's international obligations. Agitated by the precedent being laid, there is growing criticism by civil society within the U.S. as well as the international community towards the CIA-operated drone program, to whom the law of armed conflict in international law does not apply. The CIA is operating the drone program inside a gray area which critics want delegitimized before other nations with or wanting drones move down the same pathway with dangerous implications for human rights and freedoms as well as broader international security.
If Washington adopts an aggressive position in defending its program, it risks a further erosion of its human rights record, heightened anti-Americanism in South Asia and a serious breakdown of relations with Pakistan as international forces drawdown in Afghanistan. Washington may also be held responsible for legitimizing by its actions today repression in the future by nations that may employ drones against political opposition. The U.S. must open its drone program to external scrutiny and put in place independent mechanisms for measuring the ongoing success of such counter-terrorism operations in order to harness the benefits that technological advances in remotely piloted aircraft offer within legal and ethical frameworks. As a first step however Washington must shift its program from the CIA into the military structure to bring it in line with international laws for conflict, and explore possibilities to pursue with much greater restraint a list of high value targets pre-compiled in collaboration with Pakistani authorities or be prepared for an inevitable but imminent backlash carrying a much higher strategic cost.
