Sunjeev Bery

Tag: Afpak

  • US newspapers ignore drone missile critics

    The HKS Citizen (Harvard Kennedy School) October 26, 2010 By Sanjeev Bery Over the last two months, the US government has dramatically increased drone missile strikes in Pakistan.  Unfortunately, mainstream US newspapers have not shown the inclination to ask tough questions regarding the change in policy. In a replay of the softball coverage that preceded…

  • “Pretend Secrecy” Shields the White House from a Drone Missile Debate

    The Huffington Post Posted: November 5, 2009 By Sanjeev Bery It is time to set aside the notion that U.S. drone missile attacks in Pakistan are some kind of secret. The pretense of secrecy has saved Obama Administration officials from having to publicly defend the military tactic. But when Pakistani college students, think tank scholars,…

  • The State Department is keeping track…

    The U.S. State Department is now tracking the number of emails received opposing U.S. drone missile attacks in Pakistan.  What will the final number be? 50?  500?  5000? After emailing the State Department to oppose drone missile attacks, I received the message below.  You may have as well.  This means that senior State Department officials…

  • Misreading “Anti-Americanism” in Pakistan

    The latest news on US-Pakistan relations shouldn’t surprise anyone. According to the Associated Press, former Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf used billions of dollars in US military aid for everything but the paymasters’ intended purpose: fighting Taliban militias. None of this news, however, is likely to generate much Pakistani sympathy for American taxpayers. What American officials…

  • “U.S. must help Pakistan provide for its people”

    Special to The Seattle Times By Ambreen Ali THE U.S. media have become obsessed with Pakistan of late, fueling a sense of panic that we must do something quickly to save Pakistan from crumbling. True, violent tragedies seem to occur in Pakistan regularly, overtaking headlines before the prior ones register. But the most important policy…

  • Help those who ask for it.

    Americans are only learning about Pakistan from Americans, and that’s a problem.  Too much of what passes for “news” about Pakistan is really just one American telling the other about how the Taliban are on the verge of taking over the nation.  Nevermind that there might be 10,000 Taliban troops and 170 million Pakistanis. One…

  • Reacting: William Bradley on Huffington Post

    I couldn’t help but react to William Bradley’s April 30th Huffington Post column on Afghanistan and Pakistan.  It had some interesting points, but it was also filled with vaguely orientalist notions of Pakistani security issues. There were the noble generals, the scary ISI, and the invisible 170 million civilians who would soon fall to a…