One dude, not multiple.
If you can’t understand why it would be harmful to our interests for locals to discover that our supposed “medical care” is actually some military plot to identify and kill people, then I don’t know what to tell you. It seems like it should be pretty obvious that being caught in a lie as big as this is not good for us.
You’re saying we sent over a fake medical professional to do fake medical work, and he was alone? He didn’t have any fake nurses or fake technicians or fake orderlies or whatever other fake medical professionals with him? Sorry, but that claim is kinda absurd.
I don’t think it’s “your” medical care. The guy was a doctor and was on the payroll of the Pakistani government, as most polio vaccine workers typically are(not that this guy was a vaccine worker at all). And no, it shouldn’t be harmful to your interests for locals to discover that one individual used a particular pretense to enable the identification and killing of a terrorist. If you’re in the local population, but not a terrorist, you would approve of such action. Or at least not expect it to target you if you’re not a terrorist. This Pakistani article presents evidence to suggest that in the areas where they actually happen, US targeted killings are not as unpopular with locals as may be thought. Relevant sections posted below(bolding etc. mine).
These views may not be the whole truth, but they present an important side of the coin which often gets overlooked - the local civilian populace does not necessarily perceive the US’ targeted killings as a bad thing. It is not therefore necessarily harmful to your interests if the local population thinks that vaccinators may aid identification of terrorists. It is against your interests if the local Taliban overlord forbids this process to prevent the identification, but hey, the local Taliban overlord is against your interests anyway, and this is a very small marginal cost.
CMC fnord!
I’m pretty sure I cited the widespread belief of polio vaccinations being used for nefarious purposes in my post. The thing was, until Shakeel Afridil, it was just a Conspiracy Theory. And the golden goose was just delivered into the CT’s hands. An actual conspiracy using a fake vaccination program. If the CIA is willing to do it to get OBL then maybe they’re willing to do it to get insert local warlord here. It’s not rational from the outside, but it doesn’t have to be. Caesar’s wife must be above reproach. The CIA just gangbanged Caesar’s wife on the steps of the senate.
You want to be mad at someone, be mad at the people who just played into the CT’s hands and should have known better. You don’t expect generations of mistrust, the legacy of colonialism/imperialism, to just go away because you say you’re helping eradicate polio. You have to earn that trust by never, EVER, abusing what little trust they’re willing to extend. If I were a member of an NGO and was trying to run humanitarian aid into Pakistan I’d be absolutely furious. As it is I’m pretty cheesed off. Getting OBL in this way will cost many lives and set back humanitarian aid progress by decades until credibility can be re-established that they’re not CIA fronts.
Enjoy,
Steven
He’s a real doctor and he’s Pakistani, so he wasn’t a fake doctor and “we” didn’t send him to Pakistan. He did participate in the fake vaccination program and he was, evidently, also kind of a crook.
The effect of “just a conspiracy theory” was to deny many children immunization against dangerous diseases. It’s not like the Taliban crazy is suddenly going to change things.
Apart from the possibility of sheer irrational hatred leading the Taliban to perceive that immunization is a “Western” thing, a possible motivation for this latest announcement is to pressure neighboring countries which don’t want to see a return of polio to get the U.S. to stop drone strikes so that immunization can resume (and of course, people in any country are only a plane ride away from infected people, and even full immunization (which we don’t have) doesn’t mean that everyone who gets a polio shot develops complete immunity). It’s a strategy doomed to failure, but p.r. has never been a Taliban strong point.
In addition to stupidity, paranoia and ethnic/religious hate (factors encouraging the spread of conspiracy theories in general), how much of the antivax sentiment in developing countries is fed by the activities of antivaxers in the U.S. and other countries? There’s this thing called the Internet and their ravings are accessible the world over. We recently saw antivax fears spreading in the Somali community in Minnesota, fed by antivax luminary Andrew Wakefield (who showed up in Minneapolis to spread his nonsense).