One Comment on Catching Up on the Natl Media – Sunday Night: Obama, McCain, Hillary’s Fundraising, Pakistan, Iraq, Housing, Paulson, FDIC

John Maszka on Sun, 27th Jul 2008 11:18 pm


Obama has also said that he would unilaterally attack terrorists in Pakistan if he felt it was necessary. It’s ironic that Obama is now associated with a unilateral policy of preemptive war, yet we still primarily tend to associate McCain with Bush. I think the best arrangement would be to respect both Pakistan’s and Afghanistan’s sovereignty and allow them to work out their own domestic politics.

The US has played God countless times before in other state’s domestic affairs, and it has almost always come back to bite us. We need to adopt a foreign policy that respects all other states’ sovereignty, and allows for specific bilateral arrangements as needed without offsetting our overall multilateral committments.

This way, America can be the country that everyone else trusts. We can be the country that the world looks to for humanitarian assistant, economic assistant, technological assistance, and democratic leadership. Rather than what we are today, feared and hated by the international community.

How long can any state continue in such a way? What if we were spending $500 billion/year feeding, educating and healing the world and repairing our infrastructure? Who would hate us for that?

As it stands, we speak of allies in Pakistan. I’m guessing that will change very quickly once we start killing their civilians on a regular basis. Then what? Unless we intend to use nukes, or fight solely from the air, we can’t stand against Pakistan in a traditional boots on the ground combat; our military is too small.

The Pakistani government does not want to lose American financial and military support. But a large portion of the Pakistani people hate America, and will side with the insurgents. We’ll put our troops in an impossible situation of asymetric warfare they can’t possibly win (sound familiar?)

America needs a new foreign policy; one that will admit the former was less than ideal. One that will ensure the all people that the US no longer intends to encroach on other states’ sovereignty- something the greater majority of the world certainly does not believe today.

Now consider Senator Obama. He’s on a world tour proclaiming his intention to continue the military war on terror, and to take it to the soil of one of America’s own allies. What is Senator McCain doing? He’s proclaiming the need to continue the military war on terrorism as well. How long will it be before either of these candidates has the United States in direct opposition to the greater Muslim world?

Both candidates are blindly assisting the efforts to radicalize moderates against the United States. In this great political campaign, what we need is a candidate that understands that the hearts and minds of over a billion Muslim people hang in the balance; not between Obama and McCain, but between moderate and radical. What we need is a candidate that can wage war where it can be won, at the negotiating table.

Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!