A Tightrope Walk: Using Drones In Pakistan/Afghanistan

The Obama Administration made a decision last year to ramp up the use of drones and missile attacks in the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan; rather than use ground troops. While this tactic avoids losing U.S. and coalition military lives, it has a political downside that could make our American military look to be the no better than -- probably worse than -- the Taliban. This is because, in using missiles from the air rather than using the tactic of maneuvering troops on the ground, there is a very high rate of collateral civilian deaths. From a political standpoint, this could lose us the war by losing the hearts and minds of the Afghan and Pakistani peoples.