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What would you do if you were president?
Barack Obama's reply is: Pull out of Iraq and move into Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Unveiling his strategy to combat global terrorism today at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Illinois senator pledged to send troops into Pakistan to destroy terrorist safe havens even without a green light from Pervez Musharraf, the beleaguered president of Pakistan.
To me, all this fuss about invading Pakistan looks like a rhetorical jab at Clinton, who called Obama's foreign policy "naive" last week. Still, some people with sharp tongues will probably ask: So he would gladly meet with America's worst enemies and send unwanted troops into the territory of a major non-NATO ally?
But the most interesting thing about the speech is what Obama didn't say. Where was Iran? After all the fuss last week about talking to Tehran with no preconditions, Obama made little mention of the mullahs today.
That may be a good thing. As much as I don't like the prospect of a nuclear Iran, the mullahs still have to figure out how to go from splitting atoms to making a bomb (which will probably take them between two and eight years). And they ultimately have little sympathy for troublemakers like al Qaeda and the Taliban, whom they offered to help fight at the beginning of the war in Afghanistan. By contrast, Pakistan already has a nuclear arsenal and plenty of bin Laden fans. Where would you shop if you were a mujahed in search of nuclear weapons?
By bashing Pakistan over Iran, the youngster from Illinois might be showing that he's not so naive after all.
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