Obama's Diplomatic Blunder

Now Barack Obama's campaign is sending out messages asking for support for his latest sabre rattling. Here's part of the email I received yesterday:

After September 11th, we had a calling to write a new chapter in American history.

Americans were united. Our friends around the world stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us. We had the opportunity to devise new strategies, build new alliances, safeguard our values, and serve a just cause.

If only we had seized that opportunity.

Unfortunately, we did not finish the job against al Qaeda in Afghanistan. We did not capture or kill Osama bin Ladin. And this administration drove us into war on the wrong battlefield with no appreciation of how many enemies we would create and no plan for how to get out.

Now, six years later, we are overdue for a major change of course in our foreign policy. America must stop fighting the wrong war and start fighting the war we need to win.

The next president must end the war in Iraq, refocus on Afghanistan and the Taliban resurgence, and pressure Pakistan to root out al Qaeda once and for all.

Most importantly, the next president must make sure that Osama bin Ladin and al Qaeda’s core leadership are captured or killed. If Pakistan or any other nation won't act against bin Ladin and his cohorts, we will.

Sign on to my plan and spread the word:

http://action.barackobama.com/newleadership

The time has come to turn the page on a failed approach.

The next President of the United States must commit to getting our troops out of Iraq and taking the fight to the terrorists.

We must reinforce our mission in Afghanistan with additional troops. We must press Pakistan and President Musharraf to close down terrorist training camps and stop the Taliban from using Pakistan as a safe-haven.

If Musharraf acts, we will stand with him. But if Pakistan will not act against Osama bin Ladin and the terrorists who killed 3,000 Americans, we will.

These are achievable goals, and when I am president we will wage the war we need to win with a comprehensive strategy.

Read the plan, declare your support, and spread the word that it's time to change direction:

http://action.barackobama.com/newleadership

The first step to making America safer is getting our troops out of Iraq and onto the right battlefields in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But that's not enough.

No Obama, that is not the right war either. First, there is no evidence that al Queda is fighting in Afghanistan. We are currently the invaders and occupiers in Afghanistan just as in Iraq. Once al Queda was driven out of Afghanistan there was no further justification for our continued invasion and occupation. We are now in the middle of the Afghanistan civil war where we have no business being.

Second, I'm sorry to hear that this is your "strategy." After your inspiring words at the Democratic debate about taking a new path in diplomacy to have an open door to meeting with the national leaders of countries with which we are estranged, now you have taken a 180 degree turn and have presented a Bush-Cheney lite diplomatic sabre rattling statement.

NO THANKS! Threatening to invade the sovereignty of Pakistan is NOT THE WAY to do diplomacy.

Please consider a new foreign policy direction. Al Queda is a criminal enterprise. It needs to to be dealt with as such. The President of the USA, whomever it is, needs to deal with al Queda as international criminals. Present the case to the country who is protecting any such criminals, and if the country won't let the criminals be extradited then take it to the UN for extradition sanctions.

Please DO NOT INVADE a sovereign nation such as Pakistan. That is just the Bush-Cheney way of doing our nation's business.

Al Queda should be treated as any ring of international criminals would be treated. Their fake religious motivations should be treated no differently than if their motivation was money through the drug trade. As I stated in my previous blog post, only Dennis Kucinich of all the presidential candidates has the vision of a new era of diplomacy based on international respect and the treatment of international criminals as criminals, rather than glorifying them as enemies in a phony "war on terror." Let's give "strength through peace" a chance!

ADDENDUM 8/8/2007: It seems like I'm not the only one who has a sour taste from Obama's latest war mongering attempt to sell people on the wrong war by calling it the "right battlefield." Here is an excerpt from the review by the Black Agenda Report of Wednesday, 08 August 2007, by BAR executive editor Glen Ford:

The Senator from Illinois masquerades as a "peace
candidate" - and then proposes the Americans invade
Pakistan, the only Muslim nation that has The Bomb.
After the U.S. has propped up the military regime for
generations, and stunted democracy in a country of 165
million, Obama now thinks he can just walk into western
Pakistan - Waziristan - to find and kill Osama bin
Ladin. In the process, he would unite all of the Right
and the Left opposition to the government in Islamabad,
and give the generals no choice but to brandish The
Bomb. Obama wants to add 100,000 new troops to the U.S.
military. Now we know where they will be going:
Waziristan, a place from Hell. Barack Obama Ain't
Nothin' But a War Ho'

I encourage everyone to click on the link and read the whole article. It is important that such Democratic Party myths as the ones about Kennedy are not used as cover for the likes of Clinton and Obama.