Pakistan Urges Obama to Halt Drones

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jan. 24, 2009— -- In the smoldering wreckage of the 40th American drone attack in Pakistan in the last year, the government here learned that some things don't change.

Just three days after Barack Hussein Obama became the 44th American president, five missiles hit compounds in South and North Waziristan on Friday afternoon, killing at least 22 people, according to Pakistani intelligence officials.

The Pakistani government was largely silent in the hours after the attack, but today the foreign ministry formally objected, saying in a statement that civilians had been killed.

"With the advent of the new U.S. administration it is Pakistan's sincere hope that the United States will review its policy and adopt a more holistic and integrated approach towards dealing with the issue of terrorism and extremism," the statement said.

The Obama administration intends to help push a bill through Congress that would triple non-military aid to Pakistan, trying to raise people's standards of living and to help defeat a militancy by providing people alternative futures of jobs, prosperity and education for their children.

But it is clear that at the same time, a campaign of increased drone attacks begun by the Bush administration last summer, will continue because it is believed to be the best way to target al Qaeda in Pakistan's rugged and largely ungoverned tribal areas.

"Over the last five years we've gone from not using any unmanned systems in our military operations to using them every single day. And I don't see any great change in that trend," says P.W. Singer, the head of Obama's defense policy campaign team and currently a Brookings Institution fellow. "This is the future of war."

Singer helped write an Obama campaign paper, since adopted by the administration, that pledges to increase the funding for unmanned drones.

"We need greater investment in advanced technology ranging from the revolutionary, like Unmanned Aerial Vehicles [drones] and electronic warfare capabilities, to essential systems like the C-17 cargo and KC-X air refueling aircraft," reads the paper, which is posted on whitehouse.gov.