Debating the Hellfires
At tonight’s Dem debate, Obama made the obvious point that Dubya has already pivoted toward his policy of targeted terrorist assassinations in Pakistan:
Clinton: … last summer [Obama] basically threatened to bomb Pakistan, which I don’t think was a particularly wise position to take. I have long advocated a much tougher approach to Musharraf and to Pakistan, and have pushed the White House to do that.
Obama: … I never said I would bomb Pakistan. What I said was that if we have actionable intelligence against bin Laden or other key al Qaeda officials, and we — and Pakistan is unwilling or unable to strike against them, we should. And just several days ago, in fact, this administration did exactly that and took out the third-ranking al Qaeda official.
That is the position that we should have taken in the first place. And President Musharraf is now indicating that he would generally be more cooperative in some of these efforts, we don’t know how the new legislature in Pakistan will respond, but the fact is it was the right strategy…
… not only do we have to take a new approach towards Musharraf but we have to get much more serious about hunting down terrorists that are currently in northwestern Pakistan. And many people said at the time well, you can’t target those terrorists because Musharraf is our ally and we don’t want to offend him.
In fact, what we had was neither stability in Pakistan nor democracy in Pakistan, and had we pursued a policy that was looking at democratic reforms in Pakistan we would be much further along now than we are… [Link]
He’s going to smack John McCain with this in the general election, as McCain has been conflating Hellfires from Predators with ‘invading Pakistan.’ As a military man, he knows the difference — and is willing to lie about it.
on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008, 11:21 pm in Barack Obama, Debate, Hillary Clinton, Pakistan, Politics, TV, Video clips › 
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on a more surface note, i loved his careful pronunciation of ‘pakistan’ last night. so refreshing after years of hearing about ‘eye-ran,’ ‘eye-rack,’ and ‘paack-is-taan.’ oh and even more superficially? he’s totally dreamy (swoon)
what keeps on surprising me is how come obama is always taking right decisions be it iraq or pakistan despite less experience and despite being so young..
what obama was saying a month ago, army followed and did localised attack in pakistan..he was against iraq from day1 even when everyone opposed him..he is thinking way ahead of his collegues five years back..
Look at cuba issue to Hillary refused to talk to new cuban govt. post castro while obama was more open and said he is open to talk to cuban leaders..clearly he shows maturity…
Its amazing, his judgements and policies seem right despite lack of experience..while hillary seems to just follow the same path as the present govt. without much independent thinking still trusting musharraf..was for iraq war..and has same stand on cuba despite having so much experience..
ultimately it is not age that matters it is maturity..and being able to judge the situations better than others and thinking way ahead and taking right decisions that really matters..
More’s the pity that the moment he burst on to the national stage, his actions haven’t matched his words. In fact, he is one of the few people who was against the war before he was maybe for it before he was against it.
He is an amazing politician, and I can only hope that if he becomes president, he actually makes good on his talk for once, instead of continuing on the road of the politicians he holds in contempt in his own sneakily lofty way.
thanks Rahul for the links..those links were an education for me. I always wondered how many bills and what bills obama voted..these two articles are good..interesting..
that debate was one of the best (and hopefully last, at number 20!). both of the candidates shined brightly. but barack was definitely on top of this match. hillary has herself to blame, thanks to her immature comments, but for those mistakes, she would have made a good showing.
here is Angelina Jolie recommendation on keeping troups in iraq
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/27/AR2008022702217.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
so she is going john mccain way..to keep troups in iraq..
I respect Angelina for her humanitarian work..great lady..this coming from her is surprising and may be right..