Obama remark angers Pakistan - Official: Threatened strike 'irresponsible'

Chicago Tribune ^ | August 4, 2007 | Mike Dorning, Washington Bureau Tribune reporter Noreen Ahmed-Ullah contributed from Chicago

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

WASHINGTON - First Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was attacked by political rivals at home. Now he is under fire from abroad.

A senior Pakistani government official Friday criticized as "irresponsible" a threat Obama made this week to launch unilateral American military strikes against Al Qaeda havens in a remote border region of the Muslim nation.

Obama's comments also stirred street protests in Pakistan and criticism from Pakistani-Americans living in the Chicago area.

"It's a very irresponsible statement, that's all I can say," Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khusheed Kasuri told AP Television News. "As the election campaign in America is heating up we would not like American candidates to fight their elections and contest elections at our expense."

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Obama has continual "foot-in-mouth" disease.

[Chi-townChief]

Barack Hussein has a tendency to come across as the over-privileged self-righteous snot-nosed punk that he is.

[gundog]

D’OH!Bama.

[nctexan]

"Barack Hussein has a tendency to come across as the over-privileged self-righteous snot-nosed punk that he is."

Other than that... he's "brilliant"!

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

What a buffoon.

[roballen]

Or in the words of the lame stream media he’s “muscular.”

[EQAndyBuzz]

I guess Bush had diplomacy all wrong. The Democrats would threaten our allies.

Obama had his Howard Dean moment.

[Rocko]

Why the hubbub? The Great God Obama has spoken.

[marron]

Democrats can get away with this stuff because everyone knows its just posturing.

Its like the long line of Democrats calling for war with North Korea in 2003 on the eve of the invasion of Iraq. It was just their way of acting butch, promoting a war that wasn’t going to happen, while opposing the real war that was at hand.

Its more or less like the enviros’ habit of promoting wind power if you’re planning a nat-gas power plant, while opposing any real wind-farms you have on the drawing board. Its all posturing. They are posers and they admire themselves for doing it so well.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

A senior Pakistani government official Friday criticized as "irresponsible" a threat Obama made this week to launch unilateral American military strikes against Al Qaeda havens in a remote border region of the Muslim nation.

Quite frankly, I think it's long past time we made clear to Pakistan that if they won't control their territory and eradicate al-Qaeda and the Taliban, we will have to. Obviously the current method of all carrot and no stick is not working - Pakistan has effectively turned it's western border region over to Ayman al-Zawahiri while we reward it's dictator with billions in aid and increasingly ludicrous praise.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

"Over? Did you say OVER? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!"

[R.W.Ratikal]

Obama knows as much about foreign policy as I do about the Theory of Relativity. He probably couldn't’t find Pakistan if you put his fingers on it on a map.

[F15Eagle]

I don’t care for Obama and really hope he doesn’t become President. Just don’t want him sitting in the WH at all.

That being said, had his remark about getting tough if Mushy ignored anti-U.S. terrorists bases come from the GOP side of the aisle many would be cheering how Mushy was being put on notice.

Mushy’s walking a tightrope to be sure but you can bet the madrassas aren’t pumping out pro-American sentiment.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Obama has promoted a counterterrorism policy that emphasizes attempts to win over Islamic public opinion in the struggle against fundamentalist extremists . . . [and wants] "to redefine our struggle" against Islamic extremists . . . "There is the Obama promise. There is the Obama message. And now there are the Obama words," Nasr said. "They are not consistent with each other."

IMO most Muslims don't have to be "won over" vis-a-vis Islamic extremists. They know.

What's Obama up to? He's signaling the Islamic extremists that he'll accommodate them?

Bush has been sensitive to Musharraf's precarious hold on power.

Obama had to know that the "invade Pakistan" comment would inflame Islamic extremists' passions there and cause trouble for General Pervez Musharraf.

Call me a nut.. please! (TIA) but I think that it's plausible that that was the plan; to try to stir up the Islamic extremists. I still wonder why Obama gets no criticism from radical Muslims yet Obama is arguably one of the best known apostates in the world. I do not trust the man.

IMO

Note to Bill O'Reilly producers: yes this can easily be a "hate" comment and if you rearrange the letters you will find obscene words galore. Just trying to help.

[RightWhale]

Obama has had time to make up half a dozen new position statements since this was news.

[expatguy]

Obama's delivery was wrong - but in many ways he is right. It is another thing all together though to follow through.

The Road To Pakistan

[muir_redwoods]

Parley with our enemies and invade our allies...

Smooth move Slick!!

[Savage Beast]

Does anybody think the Democrats are dumb enough to nominate a hare-brained loose cannon like Obama? This guy's going to implode.

[Savage Beast]

Does anybody think the Democrats are dumb enough to nominate a hare-brained loose cannon like Obama? This guy's going to implode.

[SauronOfMordor]

Does anybody think the Democrats are dumb enough to nominate a hare-brained loose cannon like Obama? This guy's going to implode.

The reason Obama's numbers are so high, is that Hillary is so unlikable. Plus never underestimate the willingness of the black electorate to vote for an idiot.

[mathurine]

But isn’t Obama the Harvard-educated son of a Mohammedan father and an American mother, blessed with certain special insights that those of us who have not been bestowed such favors of origin and upbringing can comprehend? What’s the matter with the Pakistanis anyway? Don’t they recognize that Obama is the missing link or something? The MSM says so.

[omega4179]

Hes a Dem! Bomb your allies, Talk to your Enemies.

[Texas Eagle]

First Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was attacked by political rivals at home. Now he is under fire from abroad.

Ironically, when Hillary Clinton criticized him he was under fire at home and from a broad.

[BlueDragon]

too funny!

[BlueDragon]

Now, if North, & South Waziristan were to violently succeed from union with the rest of Pakistan...then make war on “Pakistan”, AND for good measure, attack India, here and there, while they were at it...

[Tex Pete]

[muir_redwoods]

Even if what you say is valid, should a serious candidate for president say so out loud for attribution?

[muir_redwoods]

"I don’t know but I wish Bush would start saying so out loud instead of the retarded hand-holding and mollycoddling he gives BS allies like Saud and Pak. They’re playing him for a fool, and what’s he done to prove he ain’t?"

I'll go with your first admission.

You don't know.

[Hot Tabasco]

Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!"

Germans?

Forget it, he's rolling.

[Savage Beast]

Good points. And the Democrats were dumb enough to nominate Peanutbrain Carter and Hot Springs Clinton--and the American voters were dumb enough to elect them!

When you think about it--Democrat Presidents reached their zenith with Harry Truman. Since then it's been a downward spiral, each worse than his predecessor. The rational mind struggles to imagine what lowlifes we're in store for if the Democrats ever regain the White House.

The Romans did the same thing. After the establishment of the Empire, it took only three Emperors to degenerate to Caligula ("Little Bootsie", their pet name for him--he was sooooo popular when he first came to power)--and Tiberius (his predecessor, the second Emperor) was horrible.

The Democrats have already probably produced a Tiberius or a Caligula, but the U.S. was not sufficiently decadent to allow them...shall we say...full expression.

Give 'em time. They'd LOVE to establish the Roman Empire as replacement for the American Republic--with themselves as Emperial Family, of course. They'd do it for the children--the poor--the downtrodden and because they want to give back!

Brutal tyrants, sociopaths, and self-serving politicians (is there any other kind?) typically profess altruistic motives and attribute their actions to a desire to protect the needy--a very effective modus operandi and one with which, by now, we are all familiar. Such assertions are always a warning sign--a big one!

[Salvation]

Glad they are calling Obama on this. He won’t be elected or even chosen as a #2 guy.

[reg45]

Barack Hussein Obama has the IQ of a turnip.

He would bomb Pakistan, but would never use nukes - under any circumstances. What then would deter Pakistan from using its nukes against the United States.

[muir_redwoods]

"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer"

I suppose it might make sense to some to be completely open and transparent when dealing in foreign affairs and always say exactly what one thinks without guile or pretense.

To the rest of us, we realize that this doesn't even make sense for the Dalai Lama, let alone the President of the USA.