The solution to America’s Pakistan problem may lie in Iraq. Bob Woodward initially reported a few months ago that there was a secret behind the military success of the surge in Iraq: a sophisticated and lethal special operations program.

“This is very sensitive and very top secret, but there are secret operational capabilities that have been developed by the military to locate, target, and kill leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq, insurgent leaders, renegade militia leaders. That is one of the true breakthroughs,” Woodward told Pelley.

“But what are we talking about here? It’s some kind of surveillance? Some kind of targeted way of taking out just the people that you’re looking for? The leadership of the enemy?” Pelley asked.

“I’d love to go through the details, but I’m not going to,” Woodward replied.

The details, Woodward says, would compromise the program.

“For a reporter, you don’t allow much,” Pelley remarked.

“Well no, it’s with reluctance. From what I know about it, it’s one of those things that go back to any war, World War I, World War II, the role of the tank, and the airplane. And it is the stuff of which military novels are written,” Woodward said. [Link]

And from the LA Times:

A military official familiar with the systems said they had a profound effect, both militarily and psychologically, on the Sunni Arab insurgency in Iraq.

”It is like they are living with a red dot on their head,” said a former U.S. military official familiar with the technology who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity because it has been secret. “With the quietness of the Predator, you never knew when a Hellfire [missile] would come through your window.”

The new Predator capabilities are a key ingredient in an emerging U.S. military offensive against Taliban strongholds and Al Qaeda havens in Pakistan. [Link]

In an article on Slate yesterday the author wonders if Pakistan’s new government has finally seen the light. They continue to protest now in public but secretly love the faceless killing machines that are helping to manage their terrorist problems. The key is that collateral damage be kept to a minimum.

In recent weeks, as Pakistani officials urged the U.S. to stop the drone attacks, I wondered whether these appeals were sincere or fake. They sure sounded fake. Now we have confirmation. In Sunday’s Washington Post, Karen DeYoung and Joby Warrick report what they’ve learned from interviews with U.S. and Pakistani officials. Here are the highlights:

1. The drones are succeeding tactically. They found and killed three al-Qaida leaders in the first nine months of this year. In October, after drone operations intensified, they killed three more.

2. Pakistan tacitly accepts the drones. The U.S. and Pakistan “reached tacit agreement in September on a don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy that allows unmanned Predator aircraft to attack suspected terrorist targets in rugged western Pakistan, according to senior officials in both countries.” Terms: “the U.S. government refuses to publicly acknowledge the attacks while Pakistan’s government continues to complain noisily about the politically sensitive strikes.”

3. Terrorism in Pakistan has made the government more acquiescent to drones, not less. According to U.S. officials, “Pakistan’s new acquiescence coincided with the new government there and a sharp increase in domestic terrorist attacks.” The attacks have persuaded Pakistan that the terrorists along its border are a grave threat to Pakistan as well as to Afghanistan and the U.S. The new acquiescence can be measured in hits: “From December to August, when Musharraf stepped down, there were six U.S. Predator attacks in Pakistan. Since then, there have been at least 19.”

Let’s think through what we’ve just read. Terrorists use civilian deaths and the prospect of more civilian deaths to blackmail governments. This is a political game, not just a military one. It’s what they did, for example, to Spain four years ago. In Pakistan, they’ve tried the same thing, but this time with a new twist: The enemy they’re trying to neutralize is mechanical. The terrorists can’t bog down or kill the drones because drones don’t bleed and they don’t have to land. So the terrorists tried to blackmail the nearest civilian target, Pakistan, to gain leverage over the drones.

If the Post story is correct, this strategy failed. In fact, it backfired. The terrorists are losing not just the military fight but the political one. [Link]

If even only some of this is true it will give President-elect Obama a powerful weapon to use in Pakistan and Afghanistan which he sees as the central front of this war. It may also give the Pakistani government some breathing room and a chance to actually govern.

A senior Pakistani official said that although the attacks contribute to widespread public anger in Pakistan, anti-Americanism there is closely associated with President Bush. Citing a potentially more favorable popular view of President-elect Barack Obama, he said that “maybe with a new administration, public opinion will be more pro-American and we can start acknowledging” more cooperation. [Link]

The only thing that worries me is that I fear the last sentence in the Slate article may be prophetic:

Some day, Pakistan will have its drones. So will India, China, and Iran. The proliferation of drones is well underway. Maybe it will solve the problem of terrorist insurgency. Maybe it will create something worse. [Link]

This is Skynet people. Once these drones become sentient or fall into the hands of autocrats, then what? Not to mix cyborg references but “resistance would be futile.”