Obama, Terrorism and Cubbyhold Foreign Policy

Kevin Sullivan in a must-read post looks at terrorism, terrorism policy, the way it’s perceived on the right and left and Democratic presumptive nominee Sen. Barack Obama’s position on the issue.. One observation:

If Neoconservatives broaden the conflict to the point of absurdity, Leftists in turn do their very best to whittle it into irrelevance. Neither approach makes much sense.

Terrorism remains the wild card in both the months leading up to the election, and a wild card in terms of the election. In the past few years, the candidate whom voters felt imparted a greater sense of personal and national security would likely win. Republican John McCain has taken a strong stance on terrorism. And McCain is determined to make debate over the issue a key issue in the election.

He then looks at Obama’s stance on the terrorism issue in detail. One quote:

There’s a lot to appreciate in Senator Obama’s approach to the War on Terrorism. He clearly understands that there are multiple threats–often operating in a very gray area of complicit networks–that need to be handled respectively. Understanding the ideological, ethnic and religious distinctions between these organizations and states is indeed important, and it will help us to better leverage one against the other. Understanding their petty differences and gripes could aid our efforts to target them in certain regions and isolate their access to weapons and resources. It’s good policy.

Read his take on Obama’s policy in its entirety.

Question: is any policy that can even be defined as having a tad of “nuance” doomed to become a political albatross in the heat of a 21st century political campaign? Your thoughts in comments…