Obama Campaign Addresses NY Times Report on Al-Qaida Growth in Pakistan
Obama foreign policy adviser Susan Rice and former CIA officer Bruce Reidel launched a conference call today to address the failure of the Bush administration’s approach toward Pakistan and the recently reported safe haven that exists in the country for Al Qaida.
The article on the existing Pakistan bases appeared today in the New York Times and tells of the rising number of Al Qaida operatives being trained in the region:
“Just as it had on the day before 9/11, Al Qaeda now has a band of
terrorist camps from which to plan and train for attacks against
Western targets, including the United States. Officials say the new
camps are smaller than the ones the group used prior to 2001. However,
despite dozens of American missile strikes in Pakistan since 2002, one
retired C.I.A.
officer estimated that the makeshift training compounds now have as
many as 2,000 local and foreign militants, up from several hundred
three years ago,” the article states.
During the call, Rice and Reidel said Sen. Obama, as president would focus on a multi-layered economic approach that could possibly draw in help from NATO to defeat the Al Qaida presence in Pakistan.
Rice was clear to pinpoint John McCain’s support of the Bush policies toward the region and called McCain’s support “poor judgement.”
“We have 5 times the troop levels we have in Afghanistan in Iraq, yet John McCain wants to keep our troops in Iraq indefinitely,” said Rice.
She added that by demonstrating economic assistance to Pakistan and Afghanistan, the U.S. would be “in a better position to leverage comparable contributions from NATO.”
“The heart of the terrorist threat has always been in Afganistan and Pakistan border,” Reidel said.
However, there appeared some defense from Rice and Reidel on comments Obama made last summer on “actionable intelligence” and when and if he, as president would act to make a strike on Al Qaida targets in Pakistan with or without the permission of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
Rice called Obama’s words “a new approach” and highlighted that he was
the only candidate at the time to make such a statement on U.S. policy.
Rice added that Obama plan includes a commitment to an additional 2
combat brigades in Pakistan.
Rice and Reidel responded to a reporter’s question on whether or not the NY Times article itself in their opinion constituted “actionable intelligence”. Both disagreed.
“It’s not the kind of intelligence that tells you where you can drop a bomb,” responded Reidel. Rice responded to the question saying, “actionable intelligence is widely understood to mean time and place specific.”
-crossposted on MOMocrats
~ by heykids on June 30, 2008.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: Afghanistan foreign policy, Al Qaida, barack obama, Bruce Reidel, Christine Escobar, John McCain, momocrats, NY Times, Obama foreign policy, Pakistan foreign policy, Susan Rice
Taking the war to Pakistan is perhaps the most foolish thing America can do. Obama is not the first to suggest it, and we already have sufficient evidence of the potentially negative repercussions of such an action.
For example: On January 13, 2006, the United States launched a missile strike on the village of Damadola, Pakistan. Rather than kill the targeted Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s deputy leader, the strike instead slaughtered 17 locals. This only served to further weaken the Musharraf government and further destabilize the entire area. In a nuclear state like Pakistan, this was not only unfortunate, it was outright stupid. Pakistan has 160 million Arabs (better than half of the population of the entire Arab world). Pakistan also has the support of China and a nuclear arsenal.
I predict that America’s military action in the Middle East will enter the canons of history alongside Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Holocaust, in kind if not in degree. The Bush administration’s war on terror marks the age in which America has again crossed a line that many argue should never be crossed. Call it preemption, preventive war, the war on terror, or whatever you like; there is a sense that we have again unleashed a force that, like a boom-a-rang, at some point has to come back to us. The Bush administration argues that American military intervention in the Middle East is purely in self-defense. Others argue that it is pure aggression. The consensus is equally as torn over its impact on international terrorism. Is America truly deterring future terrorists with its actions? Or is it, in fact, aiding the recruitment of more terrorists?
The last thing the United States should do at this point and time is to violate yet another state’s sovereignty. Beyond being wrong, it just isn’t very smart. We all agree that slavery in this country was wrong; as was the decimation of the Native American populations. We all agree that the Holocaust and several other acts of genocide in the twentieth century were wrong. So when will we finally admit that American military intervention in the Middle East is wrong as well?
U.S. imports of agricultural products from Pakistan totaled $63 million in 2010. The leading category was: rice ($22 million).