A suspected US missile strike Friday killed at least three foreign militants in the northwest Pakistan stronghold of a local Taliban commander, a senior security official said.

The strike was the second in as many days in the South Waziristan tribal area on the border with Afghanistan, where hundreds of extremists fled after the US-led invasion in late 2001 that toppled the Taliban regime in Kabul.

There have been more than two dozen such strikes on northwest Pakistan since August, sparking angry government criticism of the United States, a close ally which is believed to be launching the missiles from unmanned CIA aircraft.

These types of attacks are more favorable since the loss of American lives is at a minimum.  But let us be real for just a moment shall we?

Each of the Predator drones costs about $800,000 each.  And the most recent attack and use of the weapon killed 3 suspected militants.  With using a whole lot of math that breaks down to about $266,000 per kill.  And that figure does not include such things as pay for oprators or training of said people or the transportationof the weapon, you know incidentals like that.  So we could safely round off the figure at$300,000 and not be stretching it too far.

Does that sound like a fair return on an investment?  If this were a stock you would drop it like a hot potato.  I am not against saving American lives, but there has got to be a better way and a cheaper way to take out the bad guys.

And from yet another perspective, congressmen bitch about earmarks, you know things like a polar bear study or some such, but NO ONE bitches about the cost of killing one militant.  Apparently, $300,000 is a good investment of the people’s money.  Yep it is, why?  It is the military-industrial complex and that is the sacred cow of Washington.  They can always find the money for death, but not so for life…..if that does not scare you….then you are the problem we are always warned about.