Posted By: Nick
Fascinating read over at The New Republic. Eli Lake writes that Obama’s foreign policy is likely to shape up to be more like Reagan than Carter. The article highlights the fact that Richard Clarke and Rand Beers are senior advisors to the Obama Campaign and are likely to hold important posts in an Obama administration. It also notes that:
Last November at a foreign policy forum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Obama said there may be “40,000 hard-core jihadists with whom we can’t negotiate.” He went on. “Our job is to incapacitate them, to kill them.” In that spirit, he famously announced that he would strike terrorist bases in Pakistan if President Pervez Musharraf ever refuses to move on actionable intelligence against Al Qaeda–a threat that earned him the chastisement of John McCain, among others.
While that situation drew heavy criticism from many directions (including the anti-war base), I firmly believe Obama was right. There’s no excuse for not protecting American national security interests. If that means Pakistan gets pissed off, well, so be it. We can’t sit around and wait for the next terrorist attack just because the Pakistani government isn’t cooperating.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I think its important that we not try to be politically correct with regards to terrorism. There are some ultra-liberals who are even saying that we shouldn’t call it a “war on terror” anymore. That’s utterly ridiculous. It was 7 years ago this fall that we saw a declaration of war from al Qaeda, and so far we haven’t killed them. So until then, the war’s still on in MY book.
Osama bin Laden is alive and Al Qaeda is still operating. If Obama comes out and says clearly and forcefully, “When I’m president we will hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden; and we will destroy every last remant of Al Qaeda.” he will win. McCain can say whatever he wants about his military experience, but his (and Bush’s) policies have not accomplished the one single thing that was required after 9/11: the death of Osama bin Laden.
Leave a Comment