Obama, Iran and Pakistan

[John Geraghty]

I posted this on a group called Barack Obama (one million strong for Barack Obama), which appears on the facebook network. Facebook is a network of college and high school students that enables people to keep in touch with each other and to set up and join groups of all sorts. It has become very popular for political campaigns.

Hello all,

I am wondering what peoples reactions are to the remarks made by Mr.Obama regarding the need to bomb Pakistan and Iran. Here are the comments made in the Chicago Tribune ,

On September 24, Barack Obama suggested "surgical missile strikes" on Iran may become necessary. "[L]aunching some missile strikes into Iran is not the optimal position for us to be in" given the ongoing war in Iraq, Obama told the Chicago Tribune. "On the other hand, having a radical Muslim theocracy in possession of nuclear weapons is worse," he said. Obama went on to argue that military strikes on Pakistan should not be ruled out if "violent Islamic extremists" were to "take over."

I would wonder whether this is the reason that Clinton has been outpolling Obama in the polling of black voters. Any black muslims that I have talked to recently seem to be aware of this remark, this would suggest that they are unhappy with this hawkish rhetoric.

I know that Sen.Obama plans to pull the military out of Iraq, but does he plan to redeploy these troops, or at least a part of the military into Iran should the need arise. I use the term need, though it is at the discretion of the president to deem what constitutes a 'need' for surgical air strikes.

It must be noted that contingency plans for bombing Iranian nuclear facilities include the need to use small nuclear weapons, as conventional weapons would not destroy the sites. This was stated at a discussion group seminar initiated by the progressive Caucus in the summer of 2006.

What do people think Sen.Obama's stance is on this issue. To my knowledge, the Chicago tribune article is the only one that mentions this type of statement.

Let me make it clear that I am not a US citizen and therefore have no stake in the elections. I am an outside observer and am interested in getting past the rhetoric.

All the best,

John Geraghty