Obama to target sanctuaries in tribal areas in Pakistan: Promises 10,000 More Troops for Afghanistan

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

WASHINGTON: White House hopeful Barack Obama on Tuesday promised to shift the “single-minded” US focus on Iraq to a threatening “terrorist sanctuary” in tribal areas in Pakistan, in a broad new blueprint for US foreign policy.

In a rare moment of agreement on foreign policy, both Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain called in separate speeches for thousands more American troops to fight growing violence in Afghanistan, but they gave no ground on their profound differences about the Iraq war.

Setting the stage for a major foreign tour designed to bolster his commander-in-chief credentials, Obama called for tough, principled US diplomacy, rooted in his vow to get most US troops home from Iraq in 16 months.

He promised to make Iraqis provide for their own security, to strike at al-Qaeda in Pakistan if Islamabad would not, to secure loose nuclear weapons, combat climate change and end the “tyranny” of US reliance on foreign oil. “Iraq is not going to be a perfect place, and we don’t have unlimited resources to try to make it one,” Obama said in the speech in Washington.

“I will give our military a new mission on my first day in office: ending this war,” Obama said, ahead of an expected visit to Iraq and Afghanistan soon, and talks with the leaders of European powers, Israel and Jordan.

Obama’s Republican opponent, Senator John McCain argues that Obama would squander gains from last year’s troop surge strategy by withdrawing troops, and accuses the Democrat of having a closed mind on Iraq strategy.

But Obama, who also promised to use diplomacy to end Iran’s nuclear program and renew US alliances, promised to switch the focus of US military action overseas from Iraq, to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“As should have been apparent to President Bush and Senator McCain — the central front in the war on terror is not Iraq, and it never was,” he said. “Al-Qaeda has an expanding base in Pakistan that is probably no farther from their old Afghan sanctuary than a train ride from Washington to Philadelphia,” Obama said in excerpts released by his campaign.

“If another attack on our homeland comes, it will likely come from the same region where 9/11 was planned. And yet today, we have five times more troops in Iraq than Afghanistan.” “By any measure, our single-minded and open-ended focus on Iraq is not a sound strategy for keeping America safe,” Obama said.

Obama said the greatest threat came from tribal regions of Pakistan. “We cannot tolerate a terrorist sanctuary, and as president, I won’t,” he said. “We must make it clear that if Pakistan cannot or will not act, we will take out high-level terrorist targets like (Osama) bin Laden if we have them in our sights.”

McCain scathingly joined the fight, the latest episode of an intensifying and long-running campaign debate over war policy. “Senator Obama is departing soon on a trip abroad that will include a fact-finding mission to Iraq and Afghanistan,” McCain said in remarks released by his campaign.

“I note that he is speaking today about his plans for Iraq and Afghanistan before he has even left, before he has talked to General Petraeus, before he has seen the progress in Iraq, and before he has set foot in Afghanistan for the first time.

“In my experience, fact-finding missions usually work best the other way around: first you assess the facts on the ground, then you present a new strategy.” A poll on Monday underlined why Obama needs to improve his standing on national security issues, and why McCain’s team senses he is vulnerable.

Some 72 per cent of the 1,119 adults surveyed by telephone in the July 10-13 ABC News/Washington Post poll said McCain, a Vietnam War veteran would be a good commander-in-chief. Only 48 per cent thought the same of Obama.

Both candidates garnered equal support for their Iraq proposals. Obama pledged to pursue a tough and smart new national security strategy, focusing not just on Baghdad, but on Kandahar and Karachi, Tokyo, London, Beijing and Berlin.

He promised to concentrate on five main goals: “ending the war in Iraq responsibly; finishing the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban; securing all nuclear weapons and materials from terrorists and rogue states; achieving true energy security; and rebuilding our alliances to meet the challenges of the 21st Century.”

The Obama foreign policy would also include an initiative to tackle the long-term danger of climate change, which he said eclipses short-term security dangers.“Never again will we sit on the sidelines or stand in the way of global action to tackle this global challenge,” Obama said, attacking the Bush administration’s attitude on global warming.

The News July 16, 2008

http://www.thenews.com.pk

Published on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 by the Guardian/UK

Obama Promises 10,000 More Troops for Afghanistan

by Ewen MacAskill

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama yesterday pledged to increase US troops in Afghanistan by a third if he becomes president, sending 10,000 more to reinforce the 33,000 already there.0715 03 1

He was speaking after the US lost nine soldiers at the weekend in the deadliest attack on its forces in the country since 2005.

Obama has promised, soon after becoming president in January, to begin scaling back the 156,000 US troops in Iraq and Kuwait, and to shift the focus to Afghanistan.

He is to fill out his plans in a foreign policy speech in Washington today ahead of his first visit to Iraq and Afghanistan since he launched his presidential bid early last year.

Ewen MacAskill on Obama’s foreign policy:  Details of his trip have been kept secret for security reasons but a senior Palestinian spokesman, Saeb Erekat, disclosed yesterday that Obama would be in the region next week, with a meeting in the West Bank on July 23 with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

Bill Burton, a spokesman for Obama, said today’s speech “will focus on the global strategic interests of the United States, which includes ending our misguided effort in Iraq”. He added that a gradual, phased withdrawal of US troops “will allow the US to properly address the growing threat from a resurgent al-Qaida in Afghanistan”.

Previewing the speech in an article written for the comment page of the New York Times yesterday, Obama wrote: “As president, I would pursue a new strategy and begin by providing at least two additional combat brigades to support our effort in Afghanistan. We need more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and more non-military assistance to accomplish our mission there.”

He said that ending the war in Iraq is “essential to meeting our broader strategic goals, starting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the Taliban is resurgent and al-Qaida has a safe haven”.

In a separate comment on the campaign trail, Obama said the killings on Sunday reinforced the need to switch resources from Iraq to Afghanistan.

“I continue to believe that we’re under-resourced in Afghanistan,” he said. “That is the real centre for terrorist activity that we have to deal with and deal with aggressively.”

As well as visiting Iraq and Afghanistan, he is to go to Germany, France and Britain and call on Germany and France, in particular, to increase their involvement in Afghanistan.

His Republican rival, John McCain, is also to discuss Afghanistan this week. Randy Scheunemann, a senior McCain foreign policy adviser, noted yesterday that Obama had voted in the senate last year against increased resources for US troops in Afghanistan.

“Senator Obama is not trying to have it both ways, he’s trying to have it every way,” Scheunemann said.

Although eclipsed by the US’s economic slide as the main election issue, the war in Iraq remains one of the clearest points of division between Obama and McCain, who is committed to remaining in the country until stability is achieved.

Obama, in the New York Times article, reiterated his promise to have all US combat troops out by the summer of 2010, with a “residual” force left in place to fight al-Qaida and train Iraqi forces.

© Guardian News and Media Limited 2008

URL: https://newageislam.com/war-terror/obama-target-sanctuaries-tribal-areas/d/234