Obama has not sabre-rattled against Pakistan, he has not threatened to invade and occupy Musharraf's Pakistan; he has not threatened to carpet bomb Pakistani troops. He said he would act against al Qaeda infiltration only if the Pakistani government would not. Good for him. He is proving that anti-terrorism does not imply colonial occupation. Even a couple of years ago, he did not say that he would oust a Taleban like regime were it to take power in Pakistan without Security Council authorization and/or as simple preventative measure (that he is the only candidate who does not support the Bush doctrine--regime change is legitimate without UN Security Council authorization and imminent threat which such a victory would be to India; almost all Obama advisors want to restore US participation in international bodies as did Kerry).
Obama's position on Pakistan has been mis-represented by Carrol Cox, John McCain, and Adolph Reed who is unfortunately sitting this one out. And I can't see how a willingness to confront a Taleban nuclear weapon wielding government in Pakistan were it to take power deserves our criticism.
The real question is whose foreign policy is most likely to prevent that from happening. The McCain/Clinton policy of using Pakistani troops in indiscriminate air strikes against Afghani civilians is the real danger here.
So to the extent that Musharraf's regime has been destabilized by cooperation with the US war against civilians in Afghanistan, then why is Obama taking US responsibility for strikes a bad thing? Why is his concern for civilian death in Afghanistan and more humanitarian vision for US policy in Afghanistan a bad thing? See http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?pid=224928
There is only one candidate who has consistently expressed an interest in innocent civilian Muslim and Arab lost to our catastrophic foreign policy. American racism gets in the way of seeing Obama's political and moral superiority. And I mean here not only anti black American racism (important of course) but also American racist disregard for Muslim life. It would be a scandal to sit this one out.
Obama has also not said that he would bomb Iran without UN Security authorization and without a real imminent threat. That he is different from Clinton here has been obscured by Tariq Ali. In fact Obama is the only candidate who promises to make it most unlikely that military action will be taken against Iran which has shown many times an interest in a diplomatic solution to regional problems. He alone refused to give Bush authorization to carry out strikes. Why is this not enough to campagin hard for his election?
Now yes as part of his anti terrorism platform, Obama has said that he will not negotiatiate with Hizbollah and Hamas. But he is the only candidate promising direct aid to the Palestinian people (as well as Iraqi civilians). He has also been under relentless attack for hardness towards Israel. His middle name is Hussein, he was educated in a madrassa, he may have a militant cousin, he is black. Yet he has kept advisors in his inner circle who are many times more progressive towards the Palestinians than anyone in Clinton's circle, to say nothing of McCain's; one has criticized Israeli tactics in Lebanon as counter-productive. No such word from Clinton's or McCain's advisors. He has faced up to racism the best one could expect, and perhaps he will capitulate. His advisors acknowledge the threat posed by AIPAC to his candidacy in spite of his important and defensible commitment to Israeli security from rocket attacks.
Yet if one is serious about improving the conditions of the people suffering the most, one should prefer Obama over Clinton and McCain.
>From what I have heard Obama has spoken much more strongly than Clinton about restoring the writ of habeas corpus for illegal enemy combatants and ending the torture of them. Yet he is the most serious candidate about protecting innocents from terrorism.
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