The USA seems to have stepped up its drone attack campaign, and focused it on North Waziristan, with three strikes on Monday, which killed 18 and from which the death toll may rise. The first two strikes were on compounds northwest of Wana, and took place in the early hours of Monday, while the third took place in the morning and at a distance from the first two. These strikes come after the one, also in South Waziristan, which killed Ilyas Kashmiri, the Al-Qaeda operative. Pakistan has tolerated these strikes for too long, for they do not seem to have followed any of the rules that were laid out. Despite Pakistan repeatedly pointing out that the drone strikes merely create vengefulness and further fuel extremism, the latest opportunity being the visit of US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to Pakistan last month, as well as that of US Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman Adm Mike Mullen, the USA is not giving up on a tactic that substitutes for hard work and thought. The PAF has said that it can shoot the drones down. The government should give the order to do so. At least it should not have its territory used to launch the attacks, and should stop the USA using the base it has been given, and which it is using for the purpose. The USA was originally given the bases for search and rescue missions, not to launch strikes against an enemy in another country, let alone for launching strikes on Pakistani citizens in Pakistani national territory, which is as flagrant a violation of a nations sovereignty as any. The focus of recent attacks has been Waziristan, where the USA has been pressing and that too at the very highest level, for an operation to be carried out. None has, and the USA, through the Abbottabad raid and its subsequent declarations, has demonstrated the possibility of itself carrying out that operation if the Pakistan Army does not do so soon. In fact, the recent raid by NATO helicopters, in which people were taken away, indicates that the continued ignoring of this extremely serious situation by the government would cost the country very dearly. The PAF declaration that it can take down the drones is technically feasible, because the pilotless aerial vehicles can probably be shot down by piloted. However, that would require political will for the government to take the decision. It depends on the diplomats whether the drones have to be shot down, but ending their marauding will mean an end to the US alliance. That is a decision that can only prove popular in the country, something that will prove particularly useful to the government in the coming election, which is not that far away that the government can afford to ignore it. The aerial massacres that the USA keeps committing should no longer have an impunity granted by government connivance.