US can 'justify' its drone strike policy in Pak tribal areas: Expert

Washington, July 9 (ANI): The raging region of South Waziristan, where the Pakistan Army has initiated an all out attack on the Taliban's top commander Baitullah Mehsud, was targeted by US drones twice in less than 24 hours on Wednesday and fourth time in less than a week. While Pakistan and some US experts have vehemently opposed these drone hits saying they kill more civilians than insurgents, some analysts believe that the missile hits are justified.

The United States has continuously played down the sensitive drone strike issue, much like Pakistan, which has been crying that the attacks are proving counterproductive in its 'war on terror', but Yale professor, Stuart Gottlieb, argues that the attacks are justified if Washington acknowledges them.

Gottlieb, in his article in the Foreign Policy magazine, said President Obama should 'candidly' explain how target killings fit within his overall counterterrorism approach.

"They are a 'dangerous contradiction' to Obama's promise of a more humane war on terror, but the US should make its case for their necessity," a report in The Christian Science Monitor quoted Gottlieb, as saying.

Professor Gottlieb, further added that the United States must accept two facts.

The first, that the threat from Al-Qaeda and other banned terror outfits remains so dire that it needs to engage in practices that in some contexts would be ' war crimes'.

And second, that some of the most aggressive and controversial policies of Bush's administration, including targeted killing, remain necessary in the conflict against Al Qaeda, the report concluded. (ANI)