Pakistan - Jan 13th Attack

This picture is from Pakistan and was pulled from CNN. The protest is a response to the Jan 13th attack ordered by the CIA-- a missile strike from a UAV. There is still come confusion over whether there were Al Qaeda present, specifically al-Zawahiri (#2 in Al Qaeda), but there were reports of several women and children killed. That's the difficult aspect of this fight, assuming there were senior Al Qaeda members, or even Bin Laden, there will always be women and children-- whether on purpose (shields) or incidentally. However, are remote UAV attacks the right way to go? Officially, we're not supposed to be operating inside of Pakistan. I'm sure that there is a lot going on there that we don't know about that is condoned by Musharraf's government. Israel used these tactics against the Palestinians and I think there are a lot of similarities to that conflict. Of course, we can't just extend an olive branch or engage in unilateral disengagement, so I'm not so sure that the solution that was apparently working there would apply. Lots of questions, no answers.

The picture I linked here sums up the difficulties we're facing. A tactical victory can be a strategic loss. We're not exactly sure what we accomplished with the strike (even if we do, we can't prove it), but we know we've slipped just a little bit more in the public's eye. Obviously, I don't condone these people on the far side of the world burning our flag, but I can empathize with their frustration. What else can they do? What else can we do?