Re: Who should Pakistanis vote in US Presidential elections?
I’ve had this argument with multiple people before. Here’s an article from his senate run in 2004:
"As for Pakistan, Obama said that if President Pervez Musharraf were to lose power in a coup, the United States similarly might have to consider military action in that country to destroy nuclear weapons it already possesses. Musharraf’s troops are battling hundreds of well-armed foreign militants and Pakistani tribesmen in increasingly violent confrontations.
Obama said that violent Islamic extremists are a vastly different brand of foe than was the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and they must be treated differently.
“With the Soviet Union, you did get the sense that they were operating on a model that we could comprehend in terms of, they don’t want to be blown up, we don’t want to be blown up, so you do game theory and calculate ways to contain,” Obama said. "I think there are certain elements within the Islamic world right now that don’t make those same calculations.
“… I think there are elements within Pakistan right now–if Musharraf is overthrown and they took over, I think we would have to consider going in and taking those bombs out, because I don’t think we can make the same assumptions about how they calculate risks.”"
Chicago Tribune, Sept. 25, 2004
And here he is in 2007:
"Senator Barack Obama said Wednesday that the United States should shift its military focus away from the Iraq war to a broader fight against Islamic extremism, vowing to dispatch American forces to eradicate terrorist camps in Pakistan if that nation failed to take such action…
“If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act,” Mr. Obama said, “we will.”"
New York Times, August 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/02/us/politics/02obama.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
I know its oh so trendy to support him right now…and Muslim people have fooled themselves into thinking that because the man had a Muslim grandfather he’s going to be so friendly to their interests. The fact of the matter is that his foreign policy is terrible…yes he’s against the Iraq war…mostly because he wants to start the Pakistan war (and possibly the Iran war too)…