Drone attacks in the tribal areas in Pakistan may be a vital part of the Obama administrations strategy to dismantle militant hideouts and strongholds. The aerial warfare has already been accelerated to an alarming extent in terms of frequency and the latest request by Washington to extend its geographical scope to include the provincial capital of Quetta reveals the limit to which the US can go in order to secure its interests in the region without attaching importance to those actually inhabiting the area. Lets just begin with the initial rationale of conducting drone attacks upon Pakistani soil to save the US from being terrorized for which the sovereignty of other countries is being attacked. The latest request, however should not come as a surprise as the tacit agreement by the Pakistan government to allow drone attacks upon its territory. The outright rejection of such a blatantly hegemonic suggestion will work well at this particular point. That the US can be very demanding is no secret considering the pressure Pakistan endures after its refusal to launch an operation in NWA. Apparently, every US strategy that aims to root out militancy in the area also involves extensive innocent killings of the Pakistani citizens and violation of all sorts of territorial and humanitarian laws that go unnoticed by the UN and other such humanitarian organizations, which dangerously gives an impression that it is actually Pakistan and not the Taliban who are under attack in this war. Would it be wrong then to assume that Americas war on terror is synonymous to Americas war on Pakistan? Will the government please wake up and do something about it? LUBNA UMAR, Islamabad, November 28.