New America Foundation scholars Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann recently published a new report on the effectiveness of drone attacks in Pakistan. According to their figures, drones actually kill far fewer civilians than previously thought.

By the numbers:

82            Number of drone attacks in Pakistan since 2006.
34            Number of strikes in 2008
43            Number of strikes thus far in 2009
750-1000  Total number of causalities.
68%         Percentage of causalities that were Taliban or Al Qaeda.
32%         Percentage of causalities that were civilian.
20            Number of high ranking Taliban/Al Qaeda members killed
                (Interestingly all of these kills occurred after Obama became   
                 President in January 2009)

Check out the full article here for more.

As Bergen and Tiedemann acknowledge, however, the main issue policy makers should consider isn't the drones' absolute efficacy but instead their power as negative symbol of overreaching American power in Pakistan. According to a recent Gallop survey, only 9% of Pakistanis approve of the strikes.