US drone attacks in Pakistan 'backfiring,' Congress told

WASHINGTON - It seems better sense is beginning to prevail on a key adviser to U.S. Army leadership who just a couple of weeks ago was predicting the collapse of Pakistani state. David Kilcullen, an Australian who served in Iraq as one of the counter-insurgency warrior/theorists to Gen. David Petraeus', the head of American Central Command, now says that that the U.S. drone attacks inside Pakistan's territory were "cowardly" and should be called off as the strikes were creating more enemies than they eliminate.
President Barack Obama has embraced an escalation in the raids that was approved by his predecessor, George W. Bush, last summer. The CIA has carried out at least 16 Predator strikes in Pakistan in the first four months of this year, compared with 36 strikes in all of 2008, according to The Los Angeles Times. The missile strikes have killed about 161 people since Obama's inauguration, it said, citing reports from Pakistan.
During a congressional hearing earlier this week, when a congressman asked Kilcullen what the U.S. government should do in Pakistan, he got an answer that surprised him. Kilcullen said the missile strikes are backfiring and should be stopped.
The LA Times said, "Kilcullen's objection to the U.S. strategy isn't moral (he doesn't mind killing 'bad guys') or legal (most legal scholars consider 'targeted killing' acceptable under the law of war because Al Qaeda and the Taliban are at war with the United States). Kilcullen's objection is practical. He says the strikes are creating more enemies than they eliminate".