The only news hook for this post is the fact that it’s been bugging me for months and I haven’t written about it.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama characterized U.S. policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan as little more than indiscriminate bombing.

"Now you have narco drug lords who are helping to finance the Taliban, so we've got to get the job done there, and that requires us to have enough troops that we are not just air raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there."

Of course, now we have more troops moving into the theater, but has that translated into less “air raiding villages and killing civilians?”

No. In fact, Obama has increased the rate of drone strikes dramatically.

Since taking office, President Obama has sanctioned at least 41 Central Intelligence Agency drone strikes in Pakistan that have killed between 326 and 538 people, many of them, critics say, “innocent bystanders, including children,” according to a published report.

“Even if a precise account is elusive,” writes Jane Mayer in the Oct. 26 The New Yorker, “the outlines are clear: the C.I.A. has joined the Pakistani intelligence service in an aggressive campaign to eradicate local and foreign militants, who have taken refuge in some of the most inaccessible parts of the country.”

Based on a study just completed by the non-profit, New America Foundation of Washington, D.C., “the number of drone strikes has risen dramatically since Obama became President,” Mayer reports.

Maybe more drone strikes have been necessary. Maybe President Bush was too reticent to use the “proper” amount of force.

There can be no doubt, however, that Obama has embraced that which he once condemned. Drone strikes are a rather blunt instrument (not as blunt as a 500 lb. bomb, but not as targeted as a sniper bullet) and there can be no doubt that innocent civilians have been killed in these attacks.

The silence from the media, and the left (but I repeat myself) has been deafening. You don’t see the Code Pink types and ANSWER out in the streets railing against the “terrorist” Obama.

Sadly, it appears their concern about civilian casualties was merely a cover for their real goal – the demonization of President George W. Bush. Remember this bit of hypocrisy the next time they try to claim the high ground.