Poor Senator Obama. I almost feel bad for the guy. People keep comparing him to President John Kennedy. Of course, Kennedy did everything he could to prevent a nuclear war. Apparently Obama wants to start one. [More on that in a moment.]
Yeah, Obama talks with those flowing rhetorical tones and has a certain flourish to his gestures. His anorexia diminishes from the over-all physicality of his presence, but he certainly knows how to ‘wow’ the masses with [as reads the title of his book] ‘The Audacity of Hope.’
Of course, I don’t know what’s audacious about ‘hope.’ But then again, I suppose it depends on that for which you are hoping.
This week, however, he expressed a ‘hope’ that had a certain audacity to it and which I found of particular interest. Apparently, however, I’m the only person who found it interesting. No one in the mainstream media has even so much as burped in response.
Obama said, and I paraphrase, that Pakistan wasn’t doing enough to track down Osama Bin-Laden in whatever cave he currently occupies in the Pakistani mountains. Therefore, said Obama, if Pakistan continues to refrain from tracking Osama Bin-Laden, America should send troops into Pakistan to ferret him out.
No one seemed particularly perturbed by this plan. NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, and even FOX had no commentators who found this of particular interest.
So, dear reader, I’ll pose my concern and Obama’s statement in a different, and more journalistically accurate way. Then, when you’ve digested it, think how you would react to the following headline:
“Senator Barack Obama suggested we send troops to invade Pakistan. Such an invasion will mark the first time since the advent of the Atom Bomb, that a presidential candidate has advocated the United States conduct an invasion of another nation which is also a member of the ‘nuclear bomb club’ and has its bombs mounted on inter-continental ballistic missiles."
Now how do you like them apples?
Yeah, Pakistan, for all its backwardness, just happens to possess tons of nuclear missiles, the bulk of which are pointed at Hindu India.
So, not only is he suggesting we unilaterally invade a sovereign nation – he’s suggesting we invade one with the ability to incinerate all our armies in Europe and the Middle East.
Yet – no one, not even Hillary, seems concerned enough to take the time to insult him with a rebuke.
Of course, I understand his other proposed invasion - that is to say his idea that the U.S.A. should invade Darfur.
It's one of those invasions that make sense to the Democratic party.
Why? Well - Darfur has no strategic interest for anyone in the world. It is particularly of no interest to America.
Actually, if we all faced the truth, Darfur is of no particular interest to Africans, either. You don’t find people in Zimbabwe sticking signs on their front lawns proclaiming “Not On Our Watch!”
Darfur is just about the most unattractive area near the Horn of Africa. Its chief export, thanks in part to the wind, is sand. Also, for the same reason, it’s chief import is sand.
Obama's instincts, however, are right about the politics of invading Darfur. At least he wouldn’t have to put up with protest signs proclaiming:
“NO BLOOD FOR SAND!”
But the idea of invading Pakistan is truly mind-boggling.
We are now hated throughout the Arab world and much of the other countries with Islamic populations due to the Iraq invasion and some particularly bad public relations campaigns.
But, if we were to invade Pakistan, I would imagine that its Dictator/President/General Pervez Musharraf would last about five more minutes in office.
He would probably be replaced after the sixth minute by some Islamic Nut-Bag whose one and only goal would be to take one of those Pakistani nuclear missiles on a test-drive over our armies.
But, again, no one is mentioning this aspect of Obama’s mental meanderings.
And why? I guess because he sounds so good saying it.
George Bush, on the other hand, would be hated just for saying, “Tomorrow is National Take A Boy Scout To Lunch Day.”
Why? Because he sounds so bad saying anything.
We are truly a culture that has come to value form over substance.
After all – the man proclaimed the greatest public speaker in America today is Bill Clinton.
Really?
The man can barely speak two consecutive sentences that are grammatically correct. Reading an interview with him is like correcting an essay by a dyslexic high school sophomore. But – yep Bill says stuff with panache and savoir faire.
So does Obama.
It’s too bad they don’t say stuff with their brains as well.
[Post-script: As noted above - a day after this column was posted, there was a brief article posted by the AP about Obama's ideas of invading Pakistan. The article noted in part:
"The Illinois senator warned Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf earlier this week that he would use U. S. Military force in Pakistan even without Musharraf's permission if necessary to root out terrorists. However, when asked by the Associated Press after a breakfast with constituents whether there was any circumstance where he would be prepared or willing to use nuclear weapons to defeat terrorism and al-Quaida [sic] leader Osama bin Laden, Obama replied, 'There's been no discussion of using nuclear weapons and that's not a hypothetical that I'm going to discuss.' [emphasis added.] When asked whether his answer also applied to the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons, he said it did."
The AP article continued:
"Pakistan has nuclear weapons and is politically unstable, raising concerns that the current military leadership could be replaced by religious fanatics who would be less cautious in using the weapons."
The article concluded with this quote from Senator Obama, "If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf will not act, we will." [emphasis added.]
Again, virtually every time I hear audio of Senator Obama, he speaks with confidence and with great technique. But, despite the fact he is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the concepts he expresses are those of a poorly educated child.
Obama refers to the use of nuclear weapons as a "hypothetical I'm not going to discuss." He treats it like a law school discussion.
It is FAR from being a 'hypothetical' concept. Why?
Because Obama has removed it from the hypothetical realm!
HE has threatened the invasion of a country that possesses ICBM's with nuclear war-heads!
He has created the factual circumstances that make such a discussion not only plausibly realistic, but absolutely necessary as well.
Like a child on the international playground, he thinks he can just walk all over any third world country that doesn't bow to his will.
Obama reminds me of Senators Edwards, Kerry, and Clinton as well as the first President Bush and President Clinton.
These are the adults we knew as kids who wanted to be president of the student council. They accumulated the resumes necessary to get into great colleges. They have always wanted to be elected to some high office with great power.
To those ends, they have educated themselves in the political process. They are not, however, 'wise' people. They are children who lack impulse control when it comes to their random thoughts.
As the old saying goes, 'Politics is show business for ugly people.' In some ways, that is very true. Obama and the others named above have no other discernible talents other than running for office. They want the office of president like someone else wants to win a prize. They don't want the presidency so they can be wise and lead well and solve specific problems.
They want to be president because they want to be president. That's it. There is not other reason. "Hey everyone, look at me! I can't dance or sing - but now I'm the President! Yay!"
I'm still amazed that the major networks and newspapers have not been fascinated by this story about invading Pakistan. Obama is a very real candidate with real chances at election. He has raised as much or more money than Hillary.
I guess when a Democrat proposes leading us into nuclear war it isn't as big a deal as it would be if a Republican suggested it.
But, to me it's a big deal. It should be the biggest news item of all this week, and it's not even making most of the news wires this week.
