To reduce the risks to civilian lives, the US drones rules, tightened in 2013, require to target only those who pose an imminent threat to the United States. Sadly, this requirement was secretly waived for the CIA operations in Pakistan. This revelation has come to light after two western hostages -- US and Italian aid workers -- were killed in a US drone strike on Pakistan on January 15, 2015. The lives of both western hostages could have been saved had the exemption for Pakistan not been in place!

Soon after the 9/11 twin tower attacks, the US declared that it would target those who had allegedly carried out bombings on its soil, but Washington lost sight of the villains and instead started causing death and destruction in countries whose nationals were never part of the 9/11 terror squad.

The 9/11 bombings took the lives of nearly 3,000 Americans. To avenge their death, the US has killed over a million Afghans, Iraqis and Pakistanis, according to a report prepared by the Physicians for Social Responsibility in collaboration with the Physicians for Global Survival and the Noble Prize-winner International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. The report says: "A total of nearly 1.3 million people, directly and indirectly, have lost their lives to the US anti-terror war. The casualties include: 220,000 in Afghanistan, over 80,000 in Pakistan and one million people in Iraq. The figure is, probably, ten times higher than what the general public, analysts, decision-makers believe, and what has been projected by the media and NGOs. "

Though 14 years have lapsed, the US-led anti-terror war does not show any sign of coming to an end; it has only changed its faces and shapes. Though the US authorities’ claims regarding efficacy of the drone strikes in eliminating the al-Qaeda leadership yet remain unverified, the use of drones has caused 10 times more civilian deaths in Pakistan and Afghanistan than manned fighter aircrafts.

After Taliban’s ouster in 2001, the term "Wars of Choice, Wars of Necessity" hardly matched the ground realities. A write-up in the "Counterpunch" (California: USA, March 20, 2015) by Anand Gopal says: "A more accurate description of the anti-terror war would be "Wars of Insanity" for the simple reason that virtually "the entire Taliban leadership had reconciled itself to living in peace with the government the USA had helped to install (in Kabul)."

"Once, the Taliban liquidated itself, "there was no reason for the American military to remain in Afghanistan. But, so intoxicated as it was on the need for revenge, it developed a campaign that required an enemy even if it was not there. The same rogue elements that precipitated Taliban resistance in the first place were all too ready to serve as American agents in an unnecessary war. With bottomless coffers filled with American dollars, the militia thugs were ready to go to work identifying and killing "terrorists" for a handsome fee."

Scattered across Afghanistan, the US-created anti-Taliban militia thugs continue to hold ground and rule villages, according to a report entitled "Afghan Militia Leaders, Empowered by US to Fight Taliban, Inspire Fear in Villages" by Joseph Goldstein in the N.Y. Times (March 18, 2015). "They are a significant part of the legacy of the American war here, brought to power amid a special operations counterinsurgency strategy that mobilised anti-Taliban militias in areas beyond the grasp of the Afghan army…For God’s sake, take these people away from us. We cannot stand their brutality, villagers bemoan," the report adds.

There have been more than 2,000 drone casualties in Pakistan, but these have largely remained unreported by the US media. This shows that not only the US authorities but also a major segment of the US media attaches different values to the lives of their citizens and to the lives of the natives of third world countries. In their eyes, the Americans and Europeans are human, while any resident of Pakistan’s FATA can and will be targeted at will as a potential militant.

Furthermore, there has been little public concern in the US about drone strikes that killed innocent people, including women and children, in other countries. But, when it was revealed that western or US citizens could also be killed in drone strikes, Americans have been outraged. Perhaps, the citizens of America would be more sympathetic if they saw the images of drone strikes or heard the stories of their survivors!

Even the Obama administration maintains a double standard for apologies to the families of drone victims. If a western is hit by a drone strike, Washington regrets and apologies but it puts up a stone wall of silence if an Afghan or Pakistani innocent civilian is killed in the drone strike.

Drone strikes, according to jurists, are illegal when conducted off the battlefield. Ironically, over the last decade or so Washington seems to be defining the whole world as a battlefield.

On its part, Pakistan has long objected to the use of lethal drone strikes in FATA. In a statement, Pakistan’s Foreign Office said: "The deaths of Weinstein and Lo Porto in a drone strike, demonstrates the risk and unintended consequences of the use of this technology that Pakistan has been highlighting for a long time. Having lost thousands of innocent civilians in the war against terrorism, Pakistan can fully understand this tragic loss, and stands with the families of Weinstein and Lo Porto in this difficult times."

Logically, the US should not have waged such a fierce and deadliest war just to punish a few terrorists! The dehumanisation of FATA population through the US drone attacks needs to change. Washington would do well to initiate a full and fair investigation and acknowledge Pakistan’s colossal losses in the prolonged anti-terror war and also admit to the death of over 2,000 Pakistani civilians in drone attacks. This will be the first step towards acknowledging the misery of devastated families.