Pakistan Will Now Become McCain's Next Flip-Flop

[babylonsister]

http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1922

Pakistan Will Now Become McCain's Next Flip-Flop
by: Brandon Friedman
Sat Sep 20, 2008 at 13:51:39 PM EDT


Like the economists who pleaded until hoarse about a coming financial meltdown, foreign policy types have been doing the same with regard to the situation in Pakistan. Indeed, Pakistan is a nation on the verge. You could call it a nuclear version of AIG.

When the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, went to Pakistan last week, it was clear that relations between the militaries of Pakistan and the United States were more strained than they had ever been. As it stood, reports indicated that Pakistani troops had recently fired on American forces during a cross-border raid. The hostility between those on both sides of the border was palpable.

That situation has now worsened with scores dead in Saturday night's Marriott Hotel bombing in Islamabad--an event that prompted conservative MSNBC commentator Pat Buchanan to echo what others have previously said by calling Pakistan "the most dangerous country on earth." The reality is that the United States now faces a more precarious relationship with a nuclear-armed, quasi-ally, that houses hordes of violent extremists in its largely ungoverned western provinces.

Strikingly, between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, one of the two has been right on the mark from the beginning--though many heavily criticized him for his stance. The other has been devastatingly wrong, choosing to make Pakistan (and Afghanistan) a low U.S. foreign policy priority, despite the troubling indicators. That senator, John McCain, will now be forced by events to alter his position on Pakistan to come more in line with that of Barack Obama.

snip//

Unfortunately for McCain, as events like the Marriott bombing, the cross-border incidents, and the influence of the Taliban increase--and as we creep closer to mission failure in neighboring Afghanistan--he will be forced to reconfigure his position on Pakistan. He will flip-flop. He will suddenly say that Pakistan is a U.S. national security priority. And he will fall in line with Barack Obama's way of seeing the situation. Again.

[dkf]

1. Al Queda in Iraq my EYEBALL.

They are in the same place they have been since 9/11...Afghanistan/Pakistan.

[varun]

2. Obama must talk about this during the debates

on how he was one of the few who mentioned the danger from Pakistan, while others (including McCain) dismissed him.

McCain will surely flip flop on this issue (Repugs have to show their warmongering side all the time), and Obama will point it out again and again.

[babylonsister]

3. I'm very sure this will come up; wait for McBush to flip prior to

the foreign policy debate next Friday.