Obama: Still Not Ready for Prime Time

For a guy with a reputation for being smooth, Barack Obama stumbled badly when he was pressed, only mildly, by a reporter in a campaign appearance in Pennsylvania yesterday:


It is striking how naive Obama sounds when he talks about foreign policy. He proposes keeping a “strike force” either in Iraq or somewhere nearby–presumably closer than Okinawa–to “deal with potential problems that might take place in the region.” But that isn’t a policy, it’s a fantasy.
Suppose we pull our troops out of Iraq, and al Qaeda starts taking over, say, Mosul, by the simple expedient of chopping the heads off those who oppose them. How would Obama’s “strike force” “deal with” that problem? By bombing Mosul? The surge has achieved success over the last few months by doing the exact opposite of what Obama suggests. Our troops have been embedded within local communities, working hand in hand with Iraqi units to preserve order and protect the populace from terrorist threats. Once they are removed, there is no going back. The idea of a “strike force” is mere childishness.
Such is the thin stuff from which Obama conjures his Presidential bid.