A Question I'd Ask Obama or Hillary, If I Had The Chance...

Read the American Thinker article, read the thread that Simon started above, explore and compare what Obama has said and what he says now backed by advisors he picked. Read what the winners in Pakistan say. I do think there are many ways to play out foreign policy without becoming an idiot dove. There are clever and shrewd ways, and weak ways. Read the Brooks editorial. Obama, if he wins may so polarize the climate that he won't get the support and bipartaniship we would require to face some coming storms. So it does matter, That is the point some deny.

Clinton and Kennedy made some starter mistakes. Our adversaries are pretty shrewd. If it wasn't for the type of divisive campaign Obama has run and the weak foreign policy staff and statements, maybe it doesn't matter. But look at Iraq. Doesn't a great team and a killer coach matter? That is what you have to ask yourself, not the simple question about Iraq that gets a simple and pandering answer. The last thing I want is Malley near any levers, more so than Sandy.

Zbig

Iran

"Indeed as some Israelis have lately pointed out, and I emphasize some Israelis have lately pointed out, increasingly the only prospect if this continues is Israel becoming increasingly like apartheid South Africa -- the minority dominating the majority, locked in a conflict from which there is no extraction. If we want to prevent this the United States above all else must identify itself with peace and help those who are the majority in Israel, who want peace and are prepared to accept peace.

All public opinion polls show that and the majority of the Palestinians, and I believe the majority of the Jewish community in this country which is liberal, open-minded, idealistic and not committed to extremist repressions.

The United States as the government, but all of us as citizens and Democrats particularly, will soon have an opportunity to underline their commitments to a peaceful solution in the Middle East because in the next two weeks a group of Israelis and Palestinians are going to unveil a detailed peace plan on which they have been working for months and months. It?s a fifty-page document with maps and detailed compromise solutions for all of the major contentious issues, solutions which public opinion shows 70% of the Israelis would accept.

When that happens what will be the stance of the United States? Sharon has already condemned it, and not surprisingly. I hope we do not decide to condemn it. I hope we will show at least a positive interest, and many of us as citizens, as people concerned, should I think endorse it because if we count on the people who want peace eventually we will move towards peace. But they have to be mobilized and given support.

I think one of the reasons that that support from the United States has not been forthcoming is in fact political cowardice which I think is unjustified because I have real confidence in the good judgment, both of the Israeli people and of the American Jewish community and more basically of the basic American preference for a moderate peaceful solution. (Applause)" 2003

What happened was Sharon pulling out of Gaza which must have shocked Zbig. The rise of Hamas goes directly against his considerations above (the majority of Palestinians want peace) as he didn't predict what would happen between Fatah and Hamas. He says zero on Iranian support of terror and predicted in articles after 9/11 that a wave of moderates would displace hardliners in Iran. He didn't suggest any kind of surge would be an improvement in Iraq. He predicted a US strike on Iran by now. He has suggested no alternative to keep Iran from the bomb and his track record on Afghanistan, even arming OBL in the first place and helping to oust the Shah before any moderate alternative was set is pretty clear. His basic thrust has been BAD Bush and I would suggest Zbig's judgment is as questionable as Bush's, if not more so.

Of course you can read all of this at Wikki So I suggest once again to all considering Obama to inquire into Brzezinski (Afghanistan and Iran among several events), Huntington, Malley, Volker and even former Clintonites such as Rice and ask what neoCarter foreign Policy might be unleashed. Why are these people gravitating to Obama, or had Obama already gravitated to these people at Columbia and Harvard? Against this ask what counterwieght is there to this road map in Hillary and McCain.