U.S. Airstrikes in Pakistan: No Signs of Letting Up

God Bless our service people serving far from their families.

We have not forgotten you.

Photo Credit: The Long War Journal website,

"Camel Watch,"

US Marine Corps photo by

Gunnery Sergeant James A. Burks.

Is it just me, or has media attention to the war--either war, Iraq or Afghanistan--dropped 'way off since Obama took office? I don't think it's because I'm not paying attention. I honestly think now that Obama is President and Commander In Chief, the lapdog media "protects" their guy in office from his whacked-out  anti-any-war-any-time far Left base by ignoring the war. Big Media seems to care only about counting the number of troops: troops we did have, do have, or might have. But what gets done with those troops--do they report anything?

I found this article over at a interesting and informative website called The Long War Journal: "Analysis: A look at US airstrikes in Pakistan through September 2009."

Here are some facts from the article that I found interesting:

As the debate over the way forward in Afghanistan and Pakistan continues, the US air campaign in Pakistan has not abated. The number of strikes this year has already exceeded the total from last year, and there is no sign of letting up.

A look at the publicly available data on the US air campaign in Pakistan shows a marked increase in the frequency in attacks since 2008. These attacks are also becoming increasingly lethal. A little more than one in three of the strikes have killed a High Value Target (HVT).

Despite the sharp increase in both the frequency and total number of casualties resulting from Predator strikes since mid-2008, civilian casualties have remained very low. . . . our numbers show that only 9.6% of the casualties reported have been identified as civilians. While our number is undoubtedly a low estimate, this extremely small percentage suggests that the accuracy and precision of these strikes have improved along with the increased pace of these strikes over the past few years.

While much of the media's reporting on the air campaign has focused on the deaths of senior al Qaeda leaders, the campaign has more than one objective. Certainly the US is targeting al Qaeda's senior leadership in an effort to disrupt the overall command and control of the terror group, but the attacks are also aimed at hitting al Qaeda's external operations network and disrupting the Taliban's operations in both Afghanistan and in Pakistan.

The US has an interest in preventing nuclear Pakistan from becoming a failed state and needs to keep its supply lines through Pakistan and into Afghanistan open. More than 70 percent of the US and NATO supplies travel through Pakistan's northwest.