Pakistanis keeping tabs on Obama

Apparently Senator Obama reiterated his position on Pakistan's sovereignty--that is, his willingness to violate Pakistan's sovereignty in pursuit of high-value terrorist targets.

Pakistan is watching.

An Obama presidency will begin with a smoldering political fire to put out just east of Afghanistan.

I've yet to view the debate, but I'll surely pay close attention to the portion that produced this reaction. You take a hard stance with your enemies, Senator Obama. With friends you use carrots until the friend proves intransigent.

Note to Obama: This is why you don't talk about sending troops into Pakistan while campaigning

Yeah, it was an assistant from the State Department that got the ball rolling, but Obama got it headed downhill with momentum.

ISLAMABAD: Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Major (retd) Syed Tanveer Hussain has advised the government to recognise the Taliban and open all corridors for militants to wage Jihad for the liberation of Kashmir.

“India will not give freedom to the Kashmiris through dialogue so we have to wage a Jihad and our Mujahideen will secure the freedom of Kashmir within six months,” he said, while speaking in the National Assembly on Tuesday during a debate on Pakistan’s foreign policy.
(The News)

The minister's call for jihad was intended, in part, to "give a shut-up call to the United States over its threats to Pakistan."

Hopefully Musharraf will marginalize this character before Pakistan starts to disintegrate.

This did not have to happen. The State Department official was taken slightly out of context, and the White House responded with assurances regarding its respect for Pakistan's sovereignty. Obama allowed himself (by printing the story on his campaign Web site) to appear to favor an invasion of Pakistan, and then was seen as standing for his position in later comments--no statement of respect for Pakistan's anti-terrorism stance and no respect for its sovereignty.

Way to go, Obama. Restoring respect around the globe.

Pakistan continues crackdown on "miscreants"

MIRANSHAH: The security forces backed by artillery and helicopter gunships killed at least 10 miscreants in a fresh operation in a militant stronghold near the Afghan border Tuesday, the military said. Eight others were injured in the operation.

The government forces targeted an area near Miranshah, the main town in tribal North Waziristan, chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said.
(The News)

Pakistan doesn't have a Western-style free press, so far as I'm aware. I get a bit of a kick out of seeing the radicals termed "miscreants" in a news story.

This flare-up in Pakistan is comparable in importance to the Iraq war. Unless you're Barack Obama, in which case Iraq is meaningless and we need to send U.S. troops into Pakistan.

The question the reporters didn't ask of Obama

ELKO, Nev. (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Sunday stood by foreign policy comments that sparked an anti-U.S. protest in Pakistan and attacks from his opponents, telling an audience in rural Nevada, "There was no mistake there."

"I made a simple proposition that I'd like anybody here to challenge me on," Obama said of his Wednesday speech in which he said that he would use military force in Pakistan, a U.S. ally, if necessary to root out terrorists.
(AP, via mywaynews.com)

"Senator Obama, given that you now seem to be saying that you would strike at terrorist targets in Pakistan, why did your campaign Web site post a story that talked about your intention to cut off aid to Pakistan and that 'Pakistan will risk a U.S. troop invasion' unless it does a better job at rooting out terrorists?"

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