Barack Obama, The Military Strategist

On July 30, 2007 Barack Obama stated that he would not hesitate to use military force to defend American interests when he explicitly promised to send troops into lawless tribal areas of Pakistan to conduct counter-terrorism operations, even if required, over the objections of Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf.

Soap Box Ravings wonders about the sovereignty of the State of Pakistan. President Bush at least used the failure of Iraq to comply with a United Nations Mandate to invade Iraq.

At the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars yesterday he said, "But let me make this clear: There are terrorists in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al-Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will."

Soap Box Ravings notes the Senator Obama says that terrorists are plotting to strike again, but he continues to fight the President of the United states who is causing major harassment to these terrorists worldwide.

Vowing to send two more combat brigades to Afghanistan, the senator from Illinois also stipulated that US military and economic aid to Pakistan should be conditional on Pakistan doing more to assist US objectives. "Pakistan must make substantial progress in closing down the training camps, evicting foreign fighters and preventing the Taliban from using Pakistan as a staging area for attacks in Afghanistan."

Obama put President Musharraff on notice, making it clear that as US president he would expect progress towards political reform in Pakistan, too. "We must not turn a blind eye to elections that are neither free nor fair - our goal is not simply an ally in Pakistan, it is a democratic ally," he warned.

Soap Box Ravings wonders how easy it is for the leader of Pakistan to conduct political reform and have free elections as he upsets the tribal areas to make substantial progress in closing down the training camps, evicting foreign fighters and preventing the Taliban from staging attacks on Afghanistan from Pakistan. Let us not forget, when the Palestinians voted in Gaza they elected Ha mas and then their country basically self-destructed.

Mr Obama's speech yesterday combined a new toughness on pursuing terrorists wherever they may be found with a scathing indictment of President George Bush's policies and conduct of the war.

Soap Box Ravings believes that pursuing terrorists wherever they may be found is a basic tenet of President George Bush and finds it surprising that Senator Obama is mimicking the President.

He accused the Bush administration of hoodwinking the American people, deliberately scaring them while applying "a rigid 20Th-century ideology that insisted that the 21st century's stateless terrorism could be defeated through the invasion and occupation of a state. A deliberate strategy to misrepresent 9/11 to sell a war against a country that had nothing to do with 9/11."

Again Soap Box Ravings wonders if Senator Obama understands that sending combat brigades into Pakistan would be that same 20Th century ideology mentioned in the above paragraph. Or maybe it's different if you do not "deliberately scare" the American people.

He asserted: "By refusing to end the war in Iraq, President Bush is giving the terrorists what they really want, and what the Congress voted to give them in 2002: a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences."

Last, but least Soap Box Ravings would like to point out that Senator Obama would only be changing the location of what he says the terrorists really want: " a US occupation on undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences" in Pakistan. That would be in addition to any disaster he would leave in Iraq.