Will Obama Deliver Change?

As the US presidential elections get closer, the Democratic and Republican nominees are articulating their policy positions on foreign and domestic issues. Since the winner is likely to impact not just the United States but the entire world, close attention is being paid to the major policy speeches of Barack Obama and John McCain around the world. I have selected some of the commentary and analyses relevant to Muslim Americans and Pakistani Americans from various media to share with you.

Here are some excepts from a piece Pakistan Should Shudder; Afghanistan Should Despair by By Brian Cloughley, a guest writer on Reuters Blog:

Senator Obama’s foreign policy advisers and slick speechwriters had him say that “The greatest threat to our security lies in the tribal regions of Pakistan, where terrorists train and insurgents strike into Afghanistan. We cannot tolerate a terrorist sanctuary, and as president I won’t … We must make it clear that if Pakistan cannot or will not act, we will take out high level terrorist targets like bin Laden if we have them in our sights.”

Further to that comparatively minor slaughter (after all, what’s the death of a few innocent villagers, here and there?) has Senator Obama any notion of how many soldiers of the Pakistan army and the Frontier Corps have been killed in combating militants who were driven into Pakistan by the US invasion of Afghanistan, or who were turned to militancy by these unwelcome refugees? Does he know that well over a thousand grieving families of the army and the Frontier Corps have suffered the loss of sons, husbands, fathers and brothers because the US army is incapable of securing its side of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border?

Of course not: because his speechwriters concentrate only on the sharp, US-centric aspects of international affairs. They care nothing about the sacrifices of Pakistan in this US-created conflict. He doesn’t know that Pakistan has been host to millions of Afghan refugees for decades. (No other country in the world has been forced to look after so many refugees for so long - a horrible global record, which is hardly the fault of Pakistan.)

And if any talk-show interviewer asked Senator Obama “How many Afghan refugees remain in Pakistan” he wouldn’t have a clue what was being talked about. The fact that over a million Afghans are still in Pakistan and don’t want to go back to their own country because it is in a state of ungovernable chaos is neither here nor there to the presidential candidate, or to most of the world, in fact. Doesn’t it dawn on anyone that in that million (about 1.3 million, according to the UN) Afghans in Pakistan there are many who have reason to detest the present regime in Kabul and who want to get rid of it by fair means or preferably foul?

Let’s have no nonsense about the Pakistan government failing to do “more” about the Pakistan-Afghan border. Islamabad proposed that a barrier be built, and actually provided a detailed scheme for it. I attended a briefing by the former foreign minister of Pakistan at which he described it in detail. (Although I did not agree at all with the proposal to plant anti-personnel mines. I’ve seen too much of the effects of Soviet mines on Afghan children - the shattered legs and hands, the total destruction of youthful aspirations - to ever imagine that mines are anything but evil. OK, so I used them - Claymore mines - when in ambush in Borneo when we were fighting the Indonesians who wanted to take over Malaysia, decades ago; but I’ve changed my mind, having visited hospitals full of Afghan kids who have had their arms or legs blown off.) Predictably, however, the Kabul government vetoed the project, although a few miles of fences were eventually erected in spite of that stupid objection, which was entirely to do with Afghanistan’s insular objection to the well-established legality of the border.

But if America can’t secure its own border with Mexico, in spite of annual expenditure of billions of dollars in security measures, how can it expect Pakistan to seal its frontier with Afghanistan? Half a million illegal immigrants cross from Mexico into the US each year, including criminals of all natures, and, no doubt, some terrorists intent on mayhem in America. Yet Washington - and Senator Obama - make the demand that Pakistan stop all the militants and drug smugglers who want to move to and from their areas of operation.

Senator Obama declares that “The greatest threat to our security lies in the tribal regions of Pakistan.” No it doesn’t: it lies in the ignorance of those who fail to understand the problem.


Dr. Nazir Khaja, Chairman of Islamic Information Service in Los Angeles writes:

Much to the disappointment of the Muslim community the interaction of the Obama campaign and the Senator himself with issues related to Islam and Muslims leads one to draw a different conclusion. It appears to the Muslims that there is clearly a dissonance between the Senator's words and his actions pertaining to his campaign’s handling of issues that relate to the Muslim community and Islam. Either he is poorly informed or he prefers being politically correct or in-fact both.
Going back to the beginning of his campaign when the issue of the Senator being a "closet Muslim" was raised by those who wanted to discredit him, his response appropriately was to reaffirm his Christian Faith on public airways and dispel the falsehood. This was proper and yet it left the Muslim community thinking as to why he could not go the extra distance to point out to his inquisitors that even if he was a Muslim, why was it such an offence in a nation which upholds religious freedom and equality. The sensitivity around this question and the need for the Senator to be politically correct was understood by the Muslim community, which continued to respond to his message with great enthusiasm. They were left wondering though if the senator was accused of being a Jew, would he be responding in the same manner.

I have written recently in a post Is "Muslim" a Derogatory Epithet in America as follows:

Lately, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama, has been under "suspicion" of being a "closet Muslim". He and his campaign have denied it and rejected the "Muslim" label as though it were an unflattering epithet. In fact, some of the Obama staffers have become so sensitive to this "charge" that they refused to seat hijab-wearing Muslim women supporters behind Obama on stage in front of the cameras at a recent rally in Michigan. Instead of ridiculing the lies about Obama, the latest New Yorker magazine cover has in fact served to reinforce the rumors and innuendos about Muslims and his Muslim connections.

In spite of vociferous rejections of the "Muslim" label and repeated denials by Barack Obama, a significant number of Americans continue to believe Obama is Muslim. Based on recent polls, about 10-12% of the Americans believe Obama is a Muslim. Another 12% believe he took oath of office for the Senate on the Quran. A whopping 39% believe he attended an Islamic madrassa in Indonesia as a child.

While Senator Obama talks about change, he is doing what every presidential candidate has done in the US: Follow the conventional wisdom to pander to the voters. As Ralph Nader put it, "Obama is an overly cautious captive of his handlers". He is shifting his positions on just about every issue of substance, domestic or foreign. He recently agreed with the US Supreme Court decision to overturn Washington DC gun ban. He has started talking about asking the commanders on the ground in Iraq on when and how to withdraw from Iraq, rather than just give them a withdrawal time-line. He has become extremely hawkish on Afghanistan and Pakistan. He has been playing up the fears of terrorism, just like George Bush, to establish his national security credentials. He has stopped talking about the suffering of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation. The list goes on and on. He may well be elected, in spite of, or as a result of these shifts. But will this represent the message of CHANGE that brought him where he is? I have a feeling that the young, idealistic supporters of Obama expect real change from him. If he does not deliver on it, he would at best be a one-term president, if at all, causing people to be disillusioned by the Democrats once again.

Gen Petraeus Says Pakistan Most Dangerous

At the Senate Armed Services Committee hearings today, General David H. Petraeus, the newly-nominated head of the US Central Command, answered in the affirmative to a question by Sen Jack Reed if he agreed with the intelligence community and Chairman Mullen's assessment that the next terrorist attack on the United States would most likely come from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area.

With this answer, there seems to be consensus emerging in the United States that Pakistan's tribal areas represent the greatest terrorist threat for America. The US intelligence Community, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and future CENTCOM commander all agree that Pakistan is the greatest danger. There is also a seeming shift on diplomacy with Iran with General Petraeus agreeing with Defense Secretary Gates that the US needs a comprehensive approach to Iran that includes real diplomacy and engages on all issues. The US presidential candidate Barack Obama is already on record with his diplomatic outreach to Iran while at the same time calling for stiffer action along Pakistan-Afghan border.

As the Pakistani leadership currently focuses on restoration of judges, peace deals with the Taleban in tribal areas, and calls for UN inquiry into Bhutto assassination, this new consensus in the US has the potential to blind-side the newly elected government with sudden escalation along the border with Afghanistan. It is time for the new Pakistani leaders to start to pay attention to Pakistan's vital relations with the West and prevent any precipitous action by US and NATO along the Pak-Afghan border.

There is, however, some hope that a precipitous and purely military action along the western border can be avoided. The new CENTCOM commander General Petraeus believes in the use of diplomacy along with the military. “In most of the issues we'll address, a purely military approach is unlikely to succeed,” he noted, “and our strategy must recognize that.”

He said he’d seek to deal with the underlying causes of challenges in the region.