With the assassination of Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, should Black presidential candidate Barack Obama be even more nervous as he too, speaks in public among throngs of fans and admirers?
With her assassination, yet another lightening rod for Democracy is silenced. Should Barack Obama be concerned that he may be killed like Anwar Sadat?Are memories of John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King, creating uneasiness with his wife Michelle Obama?
Do I pose these questions because Obama is Black and the US is is still ripe with prejudice? ... No.
Do I pose these questions because Robert F. Kennedy was also a candidate like Obama … and he was assassinated? ... No.
Do I pose these question because Obama, has a negative stance against Pakistan and has made himself public enemy number #1 among the Pakistan people? ... Hell yes!
"If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will."
Barack has made it clear how he feels about the Pakistan people, the Pakistan leadership and what is being allowed to happen in Pakistan? ... and the brotha’ is mad at you!
Let’s go back to his August 1 Speech at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. This is where Obama first set out his 5 element program to get our troops home from Iraq.
It is time to turn the page. When I am President, we will wage the war that has to be won, with a comprehensive strategy with five elements: getting out of Iraq and on to the right battlefield in Afghanistan and Pakistan; developing the capabilities and partnerships we need to take out the terrorists and the world’s most deadly weapons; engaging the world to dry up support for terror and extremism; restoring our values; and securing a more resilient homeland.
The first step must be getting off the wrong battlefield in Iraq, and taking the fight to the terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
As President, I would make the hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military aid to Pakistan conditional, and I would make our conditions clear: 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.
I understand that President Musharraf has his own challenges.
But let me make this clear. There are terrorists holed up 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.And Pakistan needs more than F-16s to combat extremism. As the Pakistani government increases investment in secular education to counter radical madrasas, my Administration will increase America’s commitment. We must help Pakistan invest in the provinces along the Afghan border, so that the extremists’ program of hate is met with one of hope. And 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.
Beyond Pakistan, there is a core of terrorists – probably in the tens of thousands – who have made their choice to attack America. So the second step in my strategy will be to build our capacity and our partnerships to track down, capture or kill terrorists around the world, and to deny them the world’s most dangerous weapons.
I will not hesitate to use military force to take out terrorists who pose a direct threat to America. This requires a broader set of capabilities, as outlined in the Army and Marine Corps’s new counter-insurgency manual. I will ensure that our military becomes more stealth, agile, and lethal in its ability to capture or kill terrorists. We need to recruit, train, and equip our armed forces to better target terrorists, and to help foreign militarys to do the same. This must include a program to bolster our ability to speak different languages, understand different cultures, and coordinate complex missions with our civilian agencies.
To succeed, we must improve our civilian capacity. The finest military in the world is adapting to the challenges of the 21st century.
Want more of this speech? Check out Sam Graham-Felsen who contributed these excerpts.