Two More Thoughts on Obama's Vision of Afghanistan

Thursday, May 15, 2008

BARACK OBAMA

Further thoughts on Obama's statement regarding Afghanistan, "NATO hasn't provided enough troops because they are still angry about us going into Iraq."

When Obama's speaking before voters on the campaign trail, he suggests that this is all, or at least primarily, a consequence of President Bush's decision to invade Iraq. It is a simple, easy-to-understand, feel-good explanation that spurs the audience to an obvious conclusion: if we leave Iraq, our NATO allies will be more helpful in Afghanistan.

But in the past, when Obama's speaking before reporters on his plane, he acknowledges the situation is more complicated.

BEAUMONT, Texas (Reuters) - European nations must step up their efforts in Afghanistan and not count on the United States and Britain to do the "dirty work" in fighting the Taliban, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said on Thursday.
Obama, the front-runner to become his party's nominee for the White House, praised Britain's Prince Harry for secretly serving on the frontlines of the war and said other NATO allies should be doing more.
"With respect to our NATO allies, I've been very clear that we do need more support from them. We also may need to lift some of the constraints that they have placed on their forces there," Obama said on his campaign plane.
"You can't have a situation where the United States is called upon to do the dirty work, or the United States and Britain are called upon to do the dirty work, and nobody else wants to engage in actual firefights with the Taliban."

Second, if this situation really, really bothered Obama... wouldn't have, you know, held a hearing or something?

HILLARY: But I also have heard Senator Obama refer continually to Afghanistan, and he references being on the Foreign Relations Committee. He chairs the Subcommittee on Europe. It has jurisdiction over NATO. NATO is critical to our mission in Afghanistan. He's held not one substantive hearing to do oversight, to figure out what we can do to actually have a stronger presence with NATO in Afghanistan...
SEN. OBAMA: Well, first of all, I became chairman of this committee at the beginning of this campaign, at the beginning of 2007. So it is true that we haven't had oversight hearings on Afghanistan.
I have been very clear in talking to the American people about what I would do with respect to Afghanistan.

05/15 10:10 AM Share