US Drone Attacks in Pakistan 'Backfiring,' Congress Told - Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times

US Drone Attacks in Pakistan 'Backfiring,' Congress Told - Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times opinion.

David Kilcullen is no soft-headed peacenik.

He's a beefy, 41-year-old former Australian army officer who served in Iraq as a top advisor to US Army Gen. David H. Petraeus. He's one of the counter-insurgency warrior/theorists who designed Petraeus' successful "surge" of troops into the streets of Baghdad.

But a few days ago, when a congressman asked Kilcullen what the US government should do in Pakistan, the Australian guerrilla fighter sounded like an antiwar protester.

"We need to call off the drones," Kilcullen said.

In the arid valleys of western Pakistan, the United States is fighting a strange, long-distance war against Al Qaeda, the Taliban and their Pakistani allies. Unmanned "drone" airplanes take off from secret runways, seek out suspected terrorists and, with CIA employees at the remote controls, fire missiles to blow them up.

Officially, this is a covert program, and the CIA won't acknowledge that it's going on at all. Unofficially, intelligence officials say the Predator strikes are the most effective weapon they have against Al Qaeda...

More at The Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mcmanus3-2009may03,0,7133284.column