Barack Obama has decided to adopt an aggressive approach towards Pakistan:
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama warned Pakistan that he would use military force if necessary to root out terrorists, the second time in two weeks that he has staked out a dramatically different road for U.S. foreign policy.
The senator’s tough talk against Pakistan comes after he pledged to meet with leaders of rogue nations who have been rebuffed by President George W. Bush.
“Let me make this clear,” Obama said. “There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al-Qaida leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf will not act, we will.”
Quite right. Looking back we can conclude that the US let itself be distracted by Saddam and Iraq. Looking back we can conclude that the US should have focused completely on terrorists and especially Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. The first step of this major war against terrorism – which is likely to last decades – should have been taking out the Taliban and Bin Laden and, thus, weakening Al Qaeda significantly. Obama is right when he says that Al Qaeda should still be the top priority of the US. Whatever else happens, the US should devote itself publicly to capture or kill Al Qaeda’s leaders. In this regard, the US should not compromise. If Pakistan cooperates: great. If not: the US should go in nonetheless and kill as many Al Qaeda terrorists as possible.
No matter where they are.
Obviously, Obama’s tough words are inspired by Hillary Clinton’s criticism of him. She called him naive after he said that he would hold talks with the leaders of the so-called rogue nations like Iran and North Korea, without demanding anything in return (beforehand).
On this last subject I disagree quite strongly with Obama. There should be no talks with Iran as long as Iran does not stop supporting terrorism and as long as the mullahs refuse to give up their nuclear program. The world cannot negotiate with extremists.
In the war on terrorism, the West has to be on the offensive. Not just militarily but also culturally and economically… and politically. Extremists want to spread their violent ideology, just being on the defense is not enough. We must be on the offense. We have to force the forces of radical Islam back.
The first priority is Al Qaeda, but sooner or later we will also have to deal with Hezbollah, Iran, and Hamas.
Cross posted at my own blog.
UPDATE
Corrected the name. Obviously an accident: I wrote Osama instead of Obama. My apologies.
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