More than 20 dead after U.S. air strike in North Waziristan

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Pakistani villagers collected the corpses and body parts on Saturday of at least 20 people, including several suspected Arab militants as well as three children, killed by a U.S. missile strike overnight.

A pilotless drone aircraft launched the attack late on Friday, targeting a tribesman's house in Mohammad Khel, a village 30 kilometres west of Miranshah in North Waziristan, a known sanctuary of al-Qaeda and Taliban militants close to the Afghan border. ...

"We now have a figure of 20 dead. That includes eight residents of the house, five other locals and seven foreigners," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

The foreigners appeared to be Arabs, although their nationalities were unknown, he said.

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The good news is that US President George W. Bush is not going to invade Iran before he leaves office. The bad news is that he is attacking Pakistan instead.

For years the White House has issued urgent warnings about the threat from Iran at every opportunity, accompanied by the threat that "all options are on the table" if Iran didn't stop its alleged nuclear weapons programme. Since we knew how Bush acted in the case of Iraq's alleged nuclear weapons programme, there was good reason to worry that he might actually carry out his threat.

Late last year the US intelligence services deliberately undercut his case for war against Iran by releasing a joint assessment that
concluded that Tehran had stopped its nuclear weapons programme in 2004. That killed Bush's hopes of getting the American public to back an attack on Iran, and even the prospect of getting Russia to go along with sanctions against the Iranians pretty well died after the imbroglio in Georgia in August.

So the White House has gone entirely silent on Iran: no more warnings, no more threats. But about two months ago, according to
information that was leaked just last week, Bush authorised US military attacks against suspected supporters of the Taliban and al-Qaeda on Pakistani soil -- WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF THE PAKISTANI GOVERNMENT.

Pakistan is a US ally, even though the great majority of Pakistanis wish that it wasn't. There are few unbreakable rules in international affairs, but not attacking your ally is definitely one of them. Except if you are American, in which case it's okay, or so the White House appears to believe.

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[ 04 October 2008: Message edited by: Agent 204 ]