Barack Obama took office less than two weeks ago to unprecedented goodwill throughout the world and a huge approval rating in the U.S., even having right wing ideologues like the Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer beaming: "I'm now an Obama apologist". Is it possible that another American president may end up squandering massive political capital?
During the primaries I tried to ignore Obama's stance on Afghanistan. His talk of raising the troop level to 60,000 and his tough talk like: "We shall defeat you". I believed he we just posturing -- I can accept the strategy that the president needs to be seen as strong. But after only four days as president Obama has given the go ahead for Predator drone missile attacks on al-Qaida inside of Pakistan to the consternation of the Pakistani government and the outrage of the Pakistani people. This sounds too much like a continuation of the Bush administration. Not the 'change' we expect from Barack Obama.
Here are two highly qualified experts who caution that the Obama administration appear to be falling into the same trap that Lynden Johnson did with his disastrous military escalation in Vietnam. Both warn that an aggressive military, and particularly killing civilians, is not the answer to the current situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Pierre Sprey was one of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara's "Whiz Kids" in the Pentagon during the sixties developing deadly war aircraft like the F-16. He says that the events of "9-11" was not an act of war: "It was a criminal act". "By calling it a war we have glorified al Qaeda. We have glorified the cause of violent radical Islam".
History professor Marilyn B. Young teaches U.S. foreign policy at NYU and has written books on China and Vietnam. She says that previous administrations thought they could bomb the enemy into submission. And it's the same notion now with Obama sending those drone strikes into Pakistan thinking that we can scare them and break their will. "But it's, again, an effort to deal with a political issue with force. And it doesn't work".
Read more and view the video HERE
January 31, 2009
Don't blow it buddy!
6 comments:
First things first: Strikes me that O is not actively involved & god knows what they've told him in "the tank" about the situation in North Wijiristan to let them carry on for a while. (Maybe someone's spotted Osama running home from the 7-11.) So Gates & Pentagon have lots of rope to continue to do whatever they're doing. After a while - with NO results - on HIS watch - he'll step in, (after the economy recovers and he's thrown some bankers in jail) with these scaled-down ("achievable") objectives we're hearing about occasionally - whatever they are.
Maybe he promised george he'd get the bastard - I personally hope he doesn't. Rapacious global carpetbaggers have ruined more people(& counting) than he ever did. Beware the Enemy Within. P.K.II
Just to add to my previous comments:
The more I think about this situation the more worried and disappointed I'm becoming. The Obama admin seem to have a gag order out on the subject. At last Friday's press briefing Obama's new press secretary Roberts Gibbs wouldn't comment on the attacks. Neither would Joe Biden on the CBS program "Face the Nation". I can tell you right now Eric Margolis, another expert on this troubled area, and someone who's opinion I very much reapect, will be just as outraged and disappointed as I am. I have a link to Eric's blog in the upper left.
No incoming president has caught our imagination like Obama has and I think the whole world will be watching what he does now. I agree it is troubling to hear about these drones - he and his team need to impose a sense of reality on what can be achieved and this is no way to go about it. I mean for heaven's sake - he's the guy who just finished saying "we are willing to extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist"!!!
Thanks LR.
That line from Obama's inauguration speech:"... we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."
This might very well become the most memorable from the speech but only if the U.S. first sets the example.
Stan, the guy with the biggest club or the best trick has been using it to bludgeon his fellow beings since time immemorial. The only sign that this might change is the fact that we haven't played the nuclear card yet. But vengeance is a strong motivator. There is nothing worse than a bruised ego, and Obama I'm sure knows all of this and will in good time, turn the ship around. But it is going to take a very long time, because it is a big boat with a very small rudder.
Jim W.
One thing the past eight years of George Bush -- as well as the war in Vietnam, has made clear: Wielding the biggest club does not necessarily lead to winning a war. And it surely isn't the way to win in the middle east. My point on Obama sending in the drones was that it is a continuing of the Bush/Rumsfeld failed biggest club strategy.
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