Obama out-hawks Bush and Clinton on Pakistan

7:46pm

Barak Obama just delivered the most important speech of the 2008 campaign so far. Having stepped to Hillary’s left on the issue of meeting with Castro, Ahamdinejad, Chavez et al, he is now going to her right by pledging himself to military strikes on al Qaeda safe havens in Pakistan if Musharraf won’t deal with the problem himself.

If, through positions such as this, Obama can establish himself as credible on national security he will have removed one of the major obstacles to him being elected president. Here's the key passage of his speech:

“There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will.”

This is Obama’s first real attempt to connect with downscale Democrats who are currently very much in Hillary’s camp. He is on strong political ground here as his position resonates with the American public, who despite their war weariness with Iraq want those responsible for 9/11 hunted down, and shows that he is no peacenik. It also puts both Bush, who is responsible for the current muddled policy on Pakistan, and Clinton on the back foot, the Clinton administration passed on opportunities to strike at these terrorists in its second term.

Democrats need to get to the right of Republicans on a foreign policy issue to win, generally. Recall how JFK baited Richard Nixon over the missile gap, or how Bill Clinton chastised Bush senior for being soft on the 'butchers of Beijing.' Indeed, if John Kerry had been prepared to outflank Bush 43 on Saudi Arabia and turn it into a major campaign issue he would probably have won in 2004. Obama’s move today shows that he is fully aware of this and that while he is for withdrawal in Iraq, he won’t let himself be pigeonholed as a dove on national security.