[R-G] Obama Would Focus Terror Fight on Afghanistan

[Anthony Fenton]

POLITICS-US:  Obama Would Focus Terror Fight on Afghanistan
By Jim Lobe


Barack Obama speaking at Boston College.

WASHINGTON, Aug 1 (IPS) - Sen. Barack Obama, a leading candidate in  
the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, said Tuesday he  
would make Afghanistan the focus of U.S. anti-terror efforts and  
unilaterally strike terrorist targets across the border in Pakistan  
if the government of President Pervez Musharraf failed to do so.

In a major policy address delivered at the Woodrow Wilson  
International Centre for Scholars, Obama, who currently trails his  
chief rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, in public opinion polls, sharply  
criticised President George W. Bush's anti-terrorism campaign,  
charging that "he is fighting the war the terrorists want us to fight."

"Bin Laden and his allies know they cannot defeat us on the field of  
battle or in a genuine battle of ideas," he declared. "But they can  
provoke the reaction we've seen in Iraq: a misguided invasion of a  
Muslim country that sparks new insurgencies, ties down our military,  
busts our budgets, increases the pool of terrorist recruits,  
alienates America, gives democracy a bad name, and prompts the  
American people to question our engagement in the world."

"By refusing to end the war in Iraq, President Bush is giving the  
terrorists what they really want, and what Congress voted to give  
them in 2002," he added in one of several reminders that Clinton  
voted to authorise military action -- "a U.S. occupation of  
undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined  
consequences."

Obama also called for doubling U.S. foreign aid and credits to poor  
countries to 50 billion dollars a year by 2012 in order to "roll back  
the tide of hopelessness that gives rise to hate," including two  
billion dollars for a Global Education Fund to counter "the radical  
madrasas" in the Islamic world.

The speech comes amid an ongoing squabble between Obama and Clinton  
-- who together hold a clear lead in the crowded field of eight  
candidates vying for the Democratic nomination -- over the  
advisability of meeting with hostile leaders, such as Iranian  
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez,  
without preconditions.

Clinton had denounced Obama's statement during a debate last week  
that to do so would be "irresponsible and frankly naïve", a criticism  
that has since been used by Obama to assail Clinton as "Bush-Cheney  
lite", a theme he pounded -- albeit without naming Clinton -- in his  
remarks.

"It's time to turn the page on the diplomacy of tough talk and no  
action," he said. "It's time to turn the page on Washington's  
conventional wisdom -- that agreement must be reached before you  
meet, that talking to other countries is some kind of reward, and  
that presidents can only meet with people who will tell them what  
they want to hear."

Both candidates have been harshly critical of Bush's conduct of the  
Iraq war and voted last week to support legislation that would have  
required the president to withdraw all U.S. combat troops by Mar. 31,  
while retaining a residual force to help train Iraqi forces, protect  
U.S. installations and personnel, and conduct operations against al  
Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), although Obama Wednesday suggested that troops  
deployed for the latter purpose would be based "in the region",  
presumably not necessarily in Iraq.

The continued U.S. troops presence in Iraq, he said, actually  
enhanced al Qaeda's appeal and that "[e]nding the war will help  
isolate al Qaeda and give Iraqis the incentive and opportunity to  
take them out."

Bush, he said, has in any case exaggerated the threat posed by AQI  
while overlooking the "people who hit us on 9/11, who are training  
new recruits in Pakistan" which, along with Afghanistan in his view,  
required much greater attention and resources.

"As president, I would deploy at least two additional brigades [or  
about 6,000 troops] to Afghanistan to reenforce our counter-terrorism  
operations and support NATO's efforts against the Taliban," he said,  
adding that he would demand that Washington's NATO partners do the same.

At the same time, he said he would increase non-military aid to  
Afghanistan by one billion dollars -- about 75 percent more than the  
Bush administration has requested for 2008.

"As 9/11 showed us, the security of Afghanistan and America is  
shared," he said. "And today, that security is most threatened by the  
al Qaeda and Taliban sanctuary in the tribal regions of northwest  
Pakistan," which he called "the wild frontier of our globalised world."

In addition to deploying more troops to Afghanistan, Obama called for  
a much tougher stance on 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," he said.

Moreover, "[i]f we have actionable intelligence bout high-value  
terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will," he  
stressed in a key passage that, according to one analyst, Greg  
Sargent of Talkingpointsmemo.com, appeared "designed to shore up  
whatever weaknesses Camp Obama thinks may or may not have been  
created by the Hillary dustup (over talks with hostile leaders)."

Obama also argued that Pakistan should be pressed both to increase  
development and social assistance to the border areas that, according  
to a recent National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) by the U.S.  
intelligence community, have become safe havens for the Taliban and  
al Qaeda, and to hold free and fair elections.

He also called for strengthening U.S. military and civilian counter- 
insurgency capacities and building an "international intelligence and  
law enforcement infrastructure to take down terrorist networks form  
the remote islands of Indonesia, to the sprawling cities of Africa"  
to which the U.S. should contribute five billion dollars over three  
years.

"[T]his effort," he said, "will focus on helping our partners succeed  
without repressive tactics, because brutality breeds terror, it does  
not defeat it."

In that connection, Obama said he would "reject torture without  
exception", observe the Geneva Conventions, close the Guantanamo  
detention facility, and end illegal wire-tapping of U.S. citizens.

In addition to doubling non-military aid to developing countries, he  
said he would also launch new public-diplomacy efforts designed to  
"make clear that we are not at war with Islam…"

"[T]oo often since 9/11," he said, "the extremists have defined us,  
not the other way around."