Oh Mama

I just finished listening to Senator Obama's speech in D.C. that was billed as a major foreign policy speech. My first observation is that he was quite nervous initially, and no where near the famed orator he's purported to be. That is no big deal however; no one hits it out of the park everytime, and I'd have been a lot more shaky than he was.

My second observation: There were many parts of his speech where, if you closed your eyes, you wouldn't believe you were listening to a Democrat. His hindsight was 20-20 as he led us along the path of "could've". Some valid criticisms to be sure, especially as to leadership, but that was thankfully a small portion of his speech.

"Iraq is not, and has never been, the central front in the war on terror."

Entering Iraq drew the terrorists to us. Now that we've managed to eliminate the vast majority of the foreign fighters and develop closer relationships with various Iraqi elements, the jihadists are going to Afghanistan - it's a lot easier to hide in the mountains than it is in the desert. To say that Iraq has never been the central front in the war on terror is quite disingenuous.

I'd also like to have the list of allies that we've disenchanted so much. Our true allies, the one's that Senator Obama said we need to rebuild relationships with: Great Britain, Australia, Japan, South Korea all had elements participate, even if it was just a few folks that are already gone (Japan). I'm not sure about South Korea, but they're going to be our allies because we defend their freedom. Germany and France now have new leaders, which immediately improved our relationships with them. I'm not sure just how many people are on the fence: Love America or Hate America, but my guess is that there are darn few, and those that hate us will do so regardless of what we do.

Of course he had to objurgate: "...the President misled us..." as regards Iraq's nuclear ambitions.

That fallacy has been the mating call of liberals for some time now, as they continue to forget that the intelligence services of Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Israel all had the same intelligence that Saddam had an active WMD program. Turned out he didn't, or got rid of what he had. Only the conspiracy buffs think this was a Machiavellian effort. I wish he would have reminded us that he said the surge wouldn't work and we should just get out of Iraq. Today he said the surge worked and now was the opportune time to consult with President Maliki - he got that part right.

Did you catch the part about acting unilaterally if a "...major target like Osama Bin Laden..." is located in Pakistan. Hell, even Dubya hasn't gone that far. Of course, he's going to give them billions in aid so they'll stop growing poppies. A great idea, except it won't replace the income these hardscrabble farmers make from growing poppies, and it's unlikely that Pakistan will still consider us an ally if we attack anyone without their permission.

But he is willing to meet, without preconditions, with Ahmadinejad in Iran. He said he'd be going in with his eyes open, which is always a good idea so you don't trip over anything. I don't necessarily think that meeting with the Iranian leader is a bad idea, even without preconditions; I just don't know what he thinks he's going to accomplish with someone who denies the Holocaust ever took place and has said that Israel will be destroyed on many occasions.

His greatest misrepresentation was saying that John McCain wants to keep Americans there tour after tour, spending billions of dollars indefinitely. That is just an out and out lie. No one wants to keep our troops there and spend money indefinitely and he knows that. Having performed his flip-flop on Iraq, which I have no doubt is going to PO the extreme left, he sounds more like a Republican. Regardless of who is President, having a significant drawdown by mid 2010 is certainly doable - if not before then.

Both nominees agree that greater focus has to be placed on Afghanistan, NATO and the UN have to step in and help more, and the Afghan's need to build their forces up to start assuming a greater role in the effort.

On oil and climate change, and their threat to national security, both candidates are pointing in the right direction. Obama's plan to spend $150 billion over 10 years to guarantee our energy security, creating 5 million jobs in the process, sounds like a good idea. I'm not sure about the 5 million jobs, but I'm sure it would come close to that mark. Including "clean coal" and "safe nuclear power" as part of his overall plan is sensible. He also wants to lead the world in an effort to battle climate change. I'm sure when he reaches out to India and China they'll be only to happy to stop the growth of industry that is fueling their economies. It's a great idea, and they may even throw him a bone, but don't expect any major changes unless we can come up with a new source of energy. Stating that we would share any new source of energy with the rest of the world was the right thing to do.

I wouldn't expect anything different from Senator McCain in that respect. T. Boone Pickens is willing to spend his own money on TV time to create an interest in his plan to combat our oil dependency, and I think the folks in Washington are finally going to have to act.

A "Shared Security Partnership Plan" is an interesting concept, but unless Russia and/or China are involved, it will only enhance their xenophobia. Though we need more detail on what exactly the members of the partnership would have to do in the event of an attack on one of them, it remains an interesting concept, especially as regards cyber-terrorism. I'm sure that his proposal to increase foreign aid to $20 billion will convince some to join, but the doubling of foreign aid is not a bad idea either. I don't even know if we're the richest country on earth with the current cost of a barrel of oil, but we certainly have enough to share with the rest of our fellow men who need it. Keeping it out of the hands of the corrupt is always the challenge.

He also wants to go after guns, drugs, gangs; solve the Middle East problem; reform the U.N. - lofty goals to be sure.

Senator Obama's lurch to the center is not unexpected - that's the only way he stands a chance of being elected. It don't think it will cost him many votes from the far left, and it should give some reassurance to the undecided that he will not "cut and run".