Obama might send troops into Pakistan

[David S]

Obama might send troops into Pakistan
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 38 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Wednesday that he would possibly send troops into Pakistan to hunt down terrorists, an attempt to show strength when his chief rival has described his foreign policy skills as naive.
The Illinois senator warned Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf that he must do more to shut down terrorist operations in his country and evict foreign fighters under an Obama presidency, or Pakistan will risk a U.S. troop invasion and losing hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military aid.
"Let me make this clear," Obama said in a speech prepared for delivery at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "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 won't act, we will."
The excerpts were provided by the Obama campaign in advance of the speech.
Full story at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070801/ap_on_el_pr/obama_terrorism_7

[SPC]

Isn't Obama supposed to be anti-war, or is he only anti-war when its covenient for his political career?

[DownWithTheLeft]

Isn't Obama supposed to be anti-war, or is he only anti-war when its covenient for his political career?

Isn't everyone doing it for political gain?  Just another show that I could do a better job handling foreign policy than Barack Osama

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Isn't Obama supposed to be anti-war, or is he only anti-war when its covenient for his political career?

Isn't everyone doing it for political gain?  Just another show that I could do a better job handling foreign policy being a partizan hack than Barack Osama

Fixed your Post.

[YRABNNRM]

Isn't Obama supposed to be anti-war, or is he only anti-war when its covenient for his political career?

He's anti-war in relation to Iraq.

[SPC]

Isn't Obama supposed to be anti-war, or is he only anti-war when its covenient for his political career?

He's anti-war in relation to Iraq.

Do you not see the inconsistency there?

[DownWithTheLeft]

Isn't Obama supposed to be anti-war, or is he only anti-war when its covenient for his political career?

Isn't everyone doing it for political gain?  Just another show that I could do a better job handling foreign policy being a partizan hack than Barack Osama

I am an arrogant know-it all

Fixed your post

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Isn't Obama supposed to be anti-war, or is he only anti-war when its covenient for his political career?

He's anti-war in relation to Iraq.

Do you not see the inconsistency there?

I don't. At least if the function of sending troops to Pakistan is in order to hunt down Al-Qaeda members.

Of course that doesn't mean I think sending US troops into Pakistan is a very good idea, but that's a different matter entirely.

[YRABNNRM]

Isn't Obama supposed to be anti-war, or is he only anti-war when its covenient for his political career?

He's anti-war in relation to Iraq.

Do you not see the inconsistency there?

No. Sending troops into Pakistan would be what we should have done when we learned that Osama and his pals were hiding out there; not invade Iraq for no apparent accurate reason.

Where do you see the inconsistency?

[Speed of Sound]

You mean he wants to get the terrorists we're supposed to be going after?

[Person Man]

You mean he wants to get the terrorists we're supposed to be going after?

COMMUNIST!!!

[MODU]

At least he's attempting to show a spine.  That's worth some credit. 

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Obama's all for sending troops we don't have available at the moment into Pakistan and Sudan.  No wonder he wants us out of Iraq, he doesn't want to bring the troops home so we can rebuild our overstrained Army, he just wants to send them elsewhere.  Seriously though, as disappointing as Musharraf has been, do we really want to risk toppling him and having Pakistan's A-Bomb fall into the hands of Osama?  You'd think Obama would have learned from Bush the idiocy of throwing our military power around without any thought for the consequences.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Isn't Obama supposed to be anti-war, or is he only anti-war when its covenient for his political career?

There's a difference between being generically anti-war and being against the Iraq war. Of course this difference is too subtle for Republicans to understand. Turn off the freaking propaganda and learn to think for yourself.

[MasterJedi]

So he wants to go to war with a country that's a lot stronger than Iraq and is somewhat helping us? Wow....

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

So he wants to go to war with a country that's a lot stronger than Iraq and is somewhat helping us? Wow....

Pakistan isn't really helping us.

[MasterJedi]

So he wants to go to war with a country that's a lot stronger than Iraq and is somewhat helping us? Wow....

Pakistan isn't really helping us.

At least they're doing something, which is much more than most of the Middle Eastern countries.

It is interesting to see people who hate the Iraq war are trying to condone this somehow.

[Boris]

Not only would such action result in immense international repercussions, but, as Ernest mentioned, we would risk toppling Musharraf, who would be seen as immensely weak. And I doubt moving large amounts of troops into Pakistan to search for Bin Laden would be very popular among the Pakistani public. Pissing off a nation with questionable stability that has nuclear weapons is not a good idea.

That's not to say we shouldn't go after Al Qaeda in Pakistan. Why not use CIA Hunter-Killer teams or SAD forces so it can be done covertly?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

So he wants to go to war with a country that's a lot stronger than Iraq and is somewhat helping us? Wow....

Pakistan isn't really helping us.

At least they're doing something, which is much more than most of the Middle Eastern countries.

It is interesting to see people who hate the Iraq war are trying to condone this somehow.

You seem to be missing two key points

1. Pakistan, unlike Iraq, actually has a lot of Al Qaeda in it, and the government isn't cooperating
2. Obama is just leaving it as an option

[Boris]

At least he's attempting to show a spine.  That's worth some credit. 

I really hate political codewords such as "spine" when they're used to describe actual policy. When fighting terrorism, there is no such thing as having a spine, or lack thereof. It's all about making smart or dumb decisions. Firing a cruise missile into a Sudanese 'weapons factory' may have taken a spine, but in the end it hurt us. Invading Iraq may have taken a 'spine,' but the net result will perhaps be irreparable damage to this country. If not handled properly, invading Pakistan could have a similar effect.

[Person Man]

Obama's all for sending troops we don't have available at the moment into Pakistan and Sudan.  No wonder he wants us out of Iraq, he doesn't want to bring the troops home so we can rebuild our overstrained Army, he just wants to send them elsewhere.  Seriously though, as disappointing as Musharraf has been, do we really want to risk toppling him and having Pakistan's A-Bomb fall into the hands of Osama?  You'd think Obama would have learned from Bush the idiocy of throwing our military power around without any thought for the consequences.

Yeah, but we need an army to protect those nukes...and even if Pakistan is off the table, we need to send almost all of the troops we have in Iraq into Afghanistan.  I don't think Musharrif would mind us if we went in through Afghanistan to defeat the terrorists who are plotting to overthrow him and steal his nukes.

[MODU]

At least he's attempting to show a spine.  That's worth some credit. 

I really hate political codewords such as "spine" when they're used to describe actual policy. When fighting terrorism, there is no such thing as having a spine, or lack thereof. It's all about making smart or dumb decisions. Firing a cruise missile into a Sudanese 'weapons factory' may have taken a spine, but in the end it hurt us. Invading Iraq may have taken a 'spine,' but the net result will perhaps be irreparable damage to this country. If not handled properly, invading Pakistan could have a similar effect.

My comment was in reference to the debate between him and Killary about him being weak on national security.

[Person Man]

At least he's attempting to show a spine.  That's worth some credit. 

I really hate political codewords such as "spine" when they're used to describe actual policy. When fighting terrorism, there is no such thing as having a spine, or lack thereof. It's all about making smart or dumb decisions. Firing a cruise missile into a Sudanese 'weapons factory' may have taken a spine, but in the end it hurt us. Invading Iraq may have taken a 'spine,' but the net result will perhaps be irreparable damage to this country. If not handled properly, invading Pakistan could have a similar effect.

My comment was in reference to the debate between him and Killary about him being weak on national security.

You actually think unfair ad hominem attacks will work against Clinton? She's not even president yet and there is already this irrational hatred of Hillary.

[Colin]

Well this is a bad idea, probably worse than Iraq in the long run. Everything that Ernest said is pretty much accurate, not only would this be violating the sovereignty of a foreign nation that is nominally an ally of the United States but it would also mean that one of the last supporters of General Musharref, the US, would very openly be saying, we do not trust you anymore you are of no use to us. Beyond that the repurcussions of an American invasion into Pakistan would destablize Musharref, the military, and secular/pro-Western elements within the Pakistani government leading to either a multi-faceted civil war akin to the Iraqi problem or the creation of an Islamic state along the lines of Iran. We have already seen these Islamist elements within Pakistani society in the recent Mosque shoot-out which lasted for over a week. These forces, along with overall discontent with both Musharref and his pro-Western policies, could explode if US troops, overtly, cross the border into Pakistan.

The problems with this sort of scenario occur is quite major. First the pocession of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal comes into doubt in both a civil war or theocracy scenario. Both could allow even more weapons technology to fall into the hands of enemy states and, possibly, terrorist organizations. Secondly, unlike Iraq were the largest country that would be involved in any sort of implosion in the country would be Turkey or Iran, an implosion of the Pakistani government and either a state of civil war or the creation of a theocratic state would almost certain merit a response from India in some fashion. India would most likely put pressure on the US and on whatever government is in power in Pakistan at that time to maintain some sort of order. Add to that an increased presence along the border and a possible flair up in activity along the Kashmiri front and things could get quite heated on the sub-continent. That is if the Pakistani government is mostly sane or is basically a puppet of the US. If it is an irrational theocracy along the lines of the Taliban or President al-Bashir's government in the Sudan there could be even worse problems than a few skirmishes in Kashmir and more troops along the Indian-Pakistani border.

So overall, could bin Laden and al-Qaeda terrorists be hiding in Pakistan, yes, is Pakistan not doing enough to find the terrorists, possibly, but any overt incursion by US forces into Pakistan could easily break the delicate political balancing act that Pervez Musharref has used to keep a hold on power and some sense of stability in government. Now covert means, maybe having the CIA do some of the things that the CIA was meant to do instead of sitting around all day watching CNN and guessing at what's happening in other countries, could work as long as there was some deniability to the operation.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I'm suddenly curious as to what reasons Obama gave for opposing the invasion of Iraq.