In the Pakistani border areas, the war is being waged remotely with robots, partly for political reasons
The situation in Pakistan, especially in the areas bordering Afghanistan, is unclear and the country is increasingly becoming a powder keg. The government, under prere from the U.S. to bring the border areas under control and fight the militants, is trying a constant balancing act. Again and again, efforts are made to expel or retreat Taliban and other armed groups, which are also responsible for the resistance in Afghanistan, but on the other hand to rely on talks in order not to further destabilize the situation domestically.
After many years of the U.S. government and the Pentagon supporting and rousing the Pakistani government as an ally in the fight against terrorism, but the border areas continue to be a "Wild West" The US President Bush, the supreme commander, has reportedly ordered that troops on the ground and in the air are allowed to cross the border and attack targets in Pakistan. This has already happened at least once, prompting the Pakistani government and military to insist on sovereignty and announce that invading soldiers will be repelled as popular opposition grows.
Developments have come to such a head that U.S. Chief of Staff General Michael Mullen had to travel to Pakistan on Wednesday to smooth the waters with ISAF Commander ISAF David McKiernan. Gilani had ared after the meeting with the U.S. military that any violation of territorial integrity and sovereignty "with all means" be fought.
Wednesday’s meeting with Gilani, head of the government, and Kiani, head of the army, should not have led to a real solution. The two U.S. military officials ared that Pakistan’s sovereignty would not be violated. That there was no intention to deviate from the chosen path, however, was demonstrated on the same day by a new attack with an armed drone in Sudwaziristan in which six people, allegedly Taliban, were killed. On Thursday, Auben Minister Qureshi said the Pakistani government had not been informed of the attack, but stressed the need for continued cooperation with the U.S. and the fight against militants. However, he said on another occasion that foreign troops were not allowed to operate in Pakistan and that attacks with drones were also condemned by the government.
Predator drone fires Hellfire missile. Photo: Pentagon
US Secretary of Defense Gates explained to the BBC on Thursday that all the "required" Will use means to fight the militants. It may well be that in Wednesday’s talks it was agreed that U.S. soldiers would no longer cross the border by ground or air, but that drone attacks would be tolerated by Pakistan, even if they continue to be condemned in public. On Tuesday, several drones were reportedly circling over South and North Waziristan, and on Thursday, drones were again spotted over the tribal areas and were said to have spread panic and unrest among the people.
Should such a compromise have been found, it could prove fatal in the long run. Drones are controlled by humans, but they are remote-controlled machines or robots. Not to take them completely first, even though they are killing people and causing destruction in new ways, is to ignore reality and insist on an old worldview with blinders on, which is already not working on the ground where the attacks are taking place. But this denial that remote-controlled robots are more to be tolerated than soldiers or manned helicopters corresponds, in a way, to the situation of the pilots of drones, who sit in front of their screens, completely unthreatened by counterattacks, as if in a computer game, and seemingly act only in a virtual reality, while their actions take place through the virtuality in the real one. But since only the drone is at risk, the character of reality is missing.
For weeks now, the previously isolated attacks with drones have been piling up. Recently, one can speak of the U.S. waging a new war in the tribal areas, a war with remotely controlled weapons and robots, which offers a glimpse of what will become increasingly dominant in the future.
Drones circle the sky day and night. Image: Pentagon
Usually the drones arrive in the early morning and launch their missiles at a target where insurgents are suspected, but this can also hit innocent people due to false information that cannot be confirmed from a distance. The homegrown attacks by unmanned aerial vehicles were allowed to strike fear into the hearts of the people living in this region. They must always be aware that they could inadvertently become victims. It is not incomprehensible that this increases unrest and anger, because the situation is literally asymmetrical, after all, the pilots are sitting safely and unassailable hundreds, sometimes even thousands of kilometers away in front of the screens to steer the threat with a joystick and fire the missiles.
This gives the highly rugged armies of rich countries enormous advantages over poorly armed and loosely organized guerrilla groups. Apart from rough cities, the control of the airspace can be extended to that of the ground and the seas with drones or, in the future, huge airships as permanent surveillance eyes in the sky. However, should wars take place between highly fierce armies, then remote warfare with surveillance and combat robots in the water, in the air and on the ground will take on a whole new dimension.
However, even in the so-called asymmetric conflicts, the superiority was allowed to fade soon. Guerrilla groups, if they have money and technically skilled members, will soon have robots, which they can use to monitor and attack their opponents. Unlike crude weapons systems such as fighter jets or missiles, small robots do not require infrastructure that can be detected by satellites, for example. Explosive devices and suicide bombers will be replaced by robots, which will be able to reach many places. Even if the destruction caused by small drones, for example, which cannot carry large quantities of explosives or chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, will not be as crude as is now possible with car bombs or even passenger planes as missiles, fear and terror will take on entirely new dimensions.
For now, terror is still being tested in the first robot war in the Pakistani tribal areas, calling for the further development of technology and strategy that will pave the way so that soon not only "rogue states" or "warlords", but also small groups of insurgents or organized crime will be able to acquire and use the weapons of the future. Then the existing superiority of the rich and highly armed countries in the asymmetric wars in the distant failed or rogue states will come to an end and terror will really take hold.