Obama, al Qaeda threaten Pakistan

AP:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Wednesday that he would send troops into Pakistan to hunt down terrorists even without local permission if warranted — an attempt to show strength when his chief rival has described his foreign policy skills as naive.

The Illinois senator warned Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf that he must do more to shut down terrorist operations in his country and evict foreign fighters under an Obama presidency, or Pakistan will risk a U.S. troop invasion and losing hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military aid.

"Let me make this clear," Obama said in a speech at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "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-Qaida leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will."

...

Bill Roggio has the al Qaeda challenge:

Al Qaeda has weighed in on the Pakistani government's military assault on the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in Islamabad last month. As Sahab productions, the media outlet for al Qaeda's central leadership, released a 21 minute tape by Abu Yahya al Libi, a senior al Qaeda leader who has served as a spokesman and released numerous propaganda videos. In the video, titled “Of the Masters of Martyrs,” al Libi praised the followers of the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa as "martyrs." He forcefully called on Pakistanis to take up arms against Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who he called the "dirty tyrant" and a pawn of the West.

The tape was released in both Arabic and Urdu, a clear indication the message is targeted at both Pakistanis and Arab al Qaeda. Al Libi began the video by insulting the men of Pakistan for their timidity against the Pakistani government and their failure to fight. "It is the time for men to wear the burkas of the women and stay at home in the darkness after they abandoned attacking the sites where nobody can attack but the heroes and leave the way to the women," al Libi said. "Maybe they could do something the men refuse to do."

He then praised the students and leadership of the Lal Masjid for "engraving a page of history, a story of fighting which seldom will be repeated." The Islamabad mosque "graduated students and scholars who promoted virtue and prevented vice," in the past, but after the showdown against Pakistani security forces "graduated a new generation ... decorated on the same level of the masters of martyrs."

...

Clearly al Qaeda is trying to create the chaos it needs to have its allies take control of Pakistan the way it has done in other countries where it has been a parasitic presence. I think al Qaeda senses that it is about to lose its last sanctuary because of the actions of Pakistan in response to the Red Mosque mess it inspired. Obama is part of a movement in the Senate to look like they are serious about fighting al Qaeda while covering their retreat from Iraq in the face of fighting al Qaeda. We may have to use force in Pakistan to destroy the enemy, but the kind of operations Obama is suggesting would create a quagmire that would Democrats would eagerly retreat from also.

John Podhoretz notes the irony of Obama's foreign policy statements.

Update: As a supporter of the Webb Amendment which would prevent deployment of forces that have not had extended time at home, it is hard to see where Obama would get the troops for such action. The purpose of the amendment was to force a withdrawal from Iraq, but the effect would be to prevent redeployment to any other theater also. Most of the lefty web sites said the vote proves Republicans hate the troops when they voted against the amendment. What does it say about Obama that he voted for the amendment yet wants to send troops to Pakistan? I think it says at least one of those positions is disingenuous.