When it comes to important national security and foreign policy matters, Mr. Obama, the US Democratic nominee for President, never ceases to amaze and scare Americans with his knowledge and understanding, or rather the lack of it. While on the one hand he exploits the anti-Iraq war fervor in the US, he keeps advocating a larger, more devastating regional war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Not only that, he continues to toe the line of anti-Pakistan neighbors showing clear hostility toward Pakistan. His fresh comments to Bill O'Reilly, accusing Pakistan of preparing for war with India, are the latest in a series of ill-conceived statements about Pakistan.
Here's a partial transcript of Obama's interview relating to Pakistan:
O'REILLY: You gave a speech in Denver — good speech, by the way.
OBAMA: Thank you.
O'REILLY: But you bloviated about McCain not following him to the cave. You're not going to invade Pakistan, senator, if you're president. You're not going to send ground troops in there. You know it.
OBAMA: Here's the problem. John McCain loves to say, "I would follow them to the gates of Hell."
O'REILLY: But he's not going to invade either.
OBAMA: And the point is what we could have done...
O'REILLY: No, not could. Let's stay in now.
OBAMA: What we can do...
O'REILLY: Yes.
OBAMA: ...is stay focused on Afghanistan and put more pressure on the Pakistanis.
O'REILLY: Like what?
OBAMA: For example, we are providing them military aid without having enough strings attached. So they're using the military aid that we use to Pakistan, they're preparing for a war against India.
O'REILLY: So you're going to pull it out and let the Islamic fundamentalists take them over?
OBAMA: No, no, no, no. What we say is, look, we're going to provide them with additional military support targeted at terrorists, and we're going to help build their democracy and provide...
O'REILLY: We're doing that now. Negroponte's over there, and he's doing that.
OBAMA: That is not what we've been doing, Bill. We've wasted $10 billion with Musharraf without holding him accountable for knocking out those safe havens.
O'REILLY: So you are going to — again, more diplomacy, and we need it, absolutely, trying to convince the Pakistan government to take a more aggressive approach. If you don't, we're going to pull…
OBAMA: And what I will do is, if we have bin Laden in our sights...
O'REILLY: Yes.
OBAMA: ...we target him, and we knock him out.
O'REILLY: But everybody would do that. I mean, that would be the biggest win Bush could have.
OBAMA: Of course.
O'REILLY: If you send ground troops in, all hell breaks loose.
OBAMA: We can't — we can't have — and nobody talked about some full-blown invasion of Pakistan, but the simple point that I made was we've got to put more pressure on Pakistan to do what they need to do.
Obama did not offer any evidence to back up his claim that Pakistan is preparing for war against India. Pakistan is dealing with its own domestic challenges of economic meltdown, growing Taliban insurgency and continuing political instability. Such an accusation has no basis in fact. It makes no sense for a serious candidate for US presidency to make such wild accusations in a casual way, without realizing the impact of such statements on nuclear-armed South Asia region. What is needed is quite diplomacy and direct, positive engagement by the US, rather than bellicose threats and wild allegations.
As Pakistanis seem to be beginning to realize that the Taliban are no friends of Islam, Pakistan or Muslims, it is important that the US handle the situation very carefully. Any hint that the US is "pushing" Pakistan to crack down on the Taliban, or directly intervening, would be counterproductive. Let Pakistanis see it as their fight rather than America's fight. That is the only way to rebuild support for war against terrorism in Pakistan, to isolate the Taliban, and to defeat them. Repeated belligerent statements from Obama are sending the wrong signals to Pakistanis at a delicate moment. Such indiscretions by Obama do not inspire any confidence in his ability to handle complex and nuanced issues of national security and foreign policy. Let's hope he begins to learn from the experience of his VP pick, Senator Joe Biden, to keep him and the US out of trouble, while giving him time and opportunity to mature on these life-and-death issues for America and the world.
I am not a fan of Bill O'Reilly. But I do appreciate how O'Reilly challenged Obama and his policy statements on Pakistan. Such challenges are necessary to bring Mr. Obama to his senses, and help make him more sensitive about the consequences of his words for world peace and security.
