> >> Why Tony Lake sucks. . .
>
>
>
> Subject: [lbo-talk] Obama camp signals robust approach on Iran
>
> Financial Times - July 2, 2008
>
> Obama camp signals robust approach on Iran
> By Daniel Dombey and Edward Luce
>
> The prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran is the biggest threat facing the
> world, according to one of Barack Obama's senior foreign policy
> advisers.
>
>
>
> >> Compared to what? Invasion from Nicaragua?
>
>
> He also signalled that the US Democratic presidential candidate would
> push Europe to agree tougher sanctions against Tehran.
>
>
>
> >> Sanctions don't work in one sense -- their purported objective --
>
> but do work in another -- greasing the political skids for escalation.
>
> Sanctions start to build the theme that these are bad people. After
>
> a while it becomes acceptable to start killing them.
>
>
> He stressed that Mr Obama, even after withdrawing troops from Iraq
> over 16 months as he has promised, would maintain "a residual
> presence for clearly defined missions". These would include military
> training, and "preparedness to go back in if there are specific acts
> of genocidal violence".
>
>
>
> >> "specific acts of genocidal violence" -- non-sequitur/oxymoron of
> the week.
>
>
>
> "That is not 'cut and run and let's just see what happens'," Mr Lake
> said. "It seems to me a very responsible strategy."
>
>
>
> >> right-wing talking point validated.
>
>
> Highlighting a parallel with his first posting as assistant to Henry
> Cabot Lodge, a US ambassador in 1960s Saigon, he said: "It is common
> sense that we could not leave Vietnam successfully unless we left
> behind a government in Saigon that could govern successfully.
>
> "It seems obvious in retrospect; it was not obvious enough to too
> many politicians at the time. In Iraq it's the same problem."
>
>
>
> >> Uh-oh.
>
>
> On Pakistan, he said Mr Obama's statement last year about using force
> against al-Qaeda leaders in the country – even without Pakistan's
> permission – "is still relevant".
>
> Mr Lake was sympathetic to aspects of Mr McCain's idea of a League of
> Democracies, one of the centrepieces of the Republican's foreign
> policy plans.
>
>
>
> >> Double uh-oh.
>
> Stressing that he had not spoken to Mr Obama about it, he backed the
> general idea of a grouping that was "not an anti-Russian device but
> an effort to find ways for the democracies to act together on issues
> of defence of our common values . . . specifically on issues
> when the UN can't act".
>
> Even that notion might be difficult to digest for European countries
> wary of offending Moscow or seeming to sidestep the UN. But as Mr
> Lake's words indicate, Mr Obama could yet be a demanding partner for
> the rest of the world.
>
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