We hope President Obama gets his Afghanistan-Pakistan team in order FAST. Not only are these predator strikes bad moral policy they are increasingly bad tactics, undermining the broad strategy of bringing stability and diminishment of attack Islam’s appeal to those being blown up by attack America.

In the first such strikes since the inauguration of President Barack Obama, suspected U.S. missile barrages today killed at least 18 people in the lawless tribal region near the Afghan border, Pakistani officials said. …

Pakistani news reports cited security officials as saying that at least five of those killed in today’s strikes … were militants.

Missile Strikes in Pakistan

Reporting from Islamabad and Kabul — A fierce new dispute erupted today over civilian deaths in Afghanistan, with village elders asserting that as many as 22 noncombatants were killed in an American-led raid and U.S. military officials insisting all 15 dead, including a woman, were Taliban fighters. …

Like many such disputed incidents, this latest one took place in the dead of night in a remote location, and involved the use of air power by American-led troops.

Midnight Raids in Afghanistan

The question is: how to stop the build up of vicious, patriarchal violence? It would seem that bringing vicious violence to the scene would not be a good answer.