As the United States continues its covert aerial war in Pakistan, the Associated Press
reported this week
that “suicide bombings and other attacks in Pakistan declined nearly 20 percent last year,” according to a report by the Pak Institute for Peace Studies. So if you’re in Pakistan, you’re maybe less likely to encounter a terrorist attack. Sadly, though, you’re not much less likely to die in one:
The number of militant, insurgent and sectarian-related attacks in Pakistan declined from 2,586 in 2009 to 2,113 last year. But the number of people killed in attacks only dropped about 3.5 per cent, from 3,021 to 2,913.
So the average militant attack killed 1.38 people last year, up from 1.17 the year before.
Overall, the
concluded that 10,003 people died in violence in Pakistan last year. That includes 961 people killed in 135 attacks by Central Intelligence Agency drones, or 7.12 deaths per attack. Per attack, that means our covert forces are still more than 5 times more efficient at killing than the militants are.
Officially, we are still not fighting a war in Pakistan.
(Meanwhile, aviators in rural Oregon are concerned that
drone testing in the region
may end up excluding them from their airspace.)
