ummary --
After Iraq, we may be tempted to turn inward. That would be a mistake. The American moment is not over, but it must be seized anew. We must bring the war to a responsible end and then renew our leadership -- military, diplomatic, moral -- to confront new threats and capitalize on new opportunities. America cannot meet this century's challenges alone; the world cannot meet them without America.
Barack Obama is a Democratic Senator from Illinois
and a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.
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COMMON SECURITY FOR OUR COMMON HUMANITY
At moments of great peril in the last century, American leaders such as Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John F. Kennedy managed both to protect the American people and to expand opportunity for the next generation. What is more, they ensured that America, by deed and example, led and lifted the world -- that we stood for and fought for the freedoms sought by billions of people beyond our borders.
As Roosevelt built the most formidable military the world had ever seen, his Four Freedoms gave purpose to our struggle against fascism. Truman championed a bold new architecture to respond to the Soviet threat -- one that paired military strength with the Marshall Plan and helped secure the peace and well-being of nations around the world. As colonialism crumbled and the Soviet Union achieved effective nuclear parity, Kennedy modernized our military doctrine, strengthened our conventional forces, and created the Peace Corps and the Alliance for Progress. They used our strengths to show people everywhere America at its best.
Today, we are again called to provide visionary leadership. This century's threats are at least as dangerous as and in some ways more complex than those we have confronted in the past. They come from weapons that can kill on a mass scale and from global terrorists who respond to alienation or perceived injustice with murderous nihilism. They come from rogue states allied to terrorists and from rising powers that could challenge both America and the international foundation of liberal democracy. They come from weak states that cannot control their territory or provide for their people. And they come from a warming planet that will spur new diseases, spawn more devastating natural disasters, and catalyze deadly conflicts.
Friday, April 17, 2009
The Race Problematic, the Narrative of Martin Luther King Jr., and the Election of Barack Obama
Abstract
On November 4, 2008 Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States. He became the first Black person to be nominated for and win the presidency as the standard bearer of one of the two major political parties in the United States. Obama's Democratic Party primary and caucus campaign for the nomination and his general election campaign confronted both overt and subtle attributions to his race and derisions to race as a determining factor in the outcome to the election. However, Obama did not run race-specific campaigns. Other than self-identifying as a Black man, Obama did not call specific attention to his race or race in general. This essay is an attempt to analyze the race problematic as it played out within Obama's quest to become the first Black person to run for and win the presidency as the standard bearer of one of the two major political parties in the United States. My effort is to interrogate the race problematic within the paradigm of Martin Luther King Jr.'s narrative of a beloved community and Barack Obama's odyssey of winning the presidency while not propounding his identity as a Black man.
On November 4, 2008 Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States. He became the first Black person to be nominated for and win the presidency as the standard bearer of one of the two major political parties in the United States. Obama's Democratic Party primary and caucus campaign for the nomination and his general election campaign confronted both overt and subtle attributions to his race and derisions to race as a determining factor in the outcome to the election. However, Obama did not run race-specific campaigns. Other than self-identifying as a Black man, Obama did not call specific attention to his race or race in general. This essay is an attempt to analyze the race problematic as it played out within Obama's quest to become the first Black person to run for and win the presidency as the standard bearer of one of the two major political parties in the United States. My effort is to interrogate the race problematic within the paradigm of Martin Luther King Jr.'s narrative of a beloved community and Barack Obama's odyssey of winning the presidency while not propounding his identity as a Black man.
The Race Problematic, the Narrative of Martin Luther King Jr., and the Election of Barack Obama
Abstract
On November 4, 2008 Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States. He became the first Black person to be nominated for and win the presidency as the standard bearer of one of the two major political parties in the United States. Obama's Democratic Party primary and caucus campaign for the nomination and his general election campaign confronted both overt and subtle attributions to his race and derisions to race as a determining factor in the outcome to the election. However, Obama did not run race-specific campaigns. Other than self-identifying as a Black man, Obama did not call specific attention to his race or race in general. This essay is an attempt to analyze the race problematic as it played out within Obama's quest to become the first Black person to run for and win the presidency as the standard bearer of one of the two major political parties in the United States. My effort is to interrogate the race problematic within the paradigm of Martin Luther King Jr.'s narrative of a beloved community and Barack Obama's odyssey of winning the presidency while not propounding his identity as a Black man.
On November 4, 2008 Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States. He became the first Black person to be nominated for and win the presidency as the standard bearer of one of the two major political parties in the United States. Obama's Democratic Party primary and caucus campaign for the nomination and his general election campaign confronted both overt and subtle attributions to his race and derisions to race as a determining factor in the outcome to the election. However, Obama did not run race-specific campaigns. Other than self-identifying as a Black man, Obama did not call specific attention to his race or race in general. This essay is an attempt to analyze the race problematic as it played out within Obama's quest to become the first Black person to run for and win the presidency as the standard bearer of one of the two major political parties in the United States. My effort is to interrogate the race problematic within the paradigm of Martin Luther King Jr.'s narrative of a beloved community and Barack Obama's odyssey of winning the presidency while not propounding his identity as a Black man.
Critical Thinking: Some Cognitive Components
Creativity, discovery, and independent thought, while processes that we all admire, are more talked about in educational circles than productively integrated into well conceived and executed teaching patterns. A prime difficulty lies in the complexity of these cognitive abilities and our lack of understanding of the component behaviors which they comprise. In an effort to press us toward a more explicit utilization of such notions as critical thinking, the author offers an analysis in behavioral terms that are immediately relevant to the classroom.
Obama the Mideast Peace-Maker?
Since the publication of my retrospective article on Israel in the fall 25th anniversary issue of World Policy Journal, a few colleagues have wondered if I considered revising my somewhat "pessimistic outlook" (the way one of my correspondents put it) about the chances of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian with Barack Obama in office. So have I changed my tune?
First, what I was trying to do in my WPJ article was to highlight the gap between the high expectations that many of us seemed to share regarding the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in 1991 (the end of the Cold War, increasing globalization, etc.) with the depressing reality of today's Holy Land—post-9/11, post-Iraq War, and amidst the present global economic crisis. If anything, my retrospective reflected my sense of realism about the ability and willingness on the part of Israelis and Palestinians—with or without outside intervention—to settle their differences and achieve peace in the near future.
Leon Hadar, a research fellow in foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, is the author of Sandstorm: Policy Failure in the Middle East (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).
More by Leon T. Hadar
I was not encouraged after reading David Unger's article in the same issue of WPJ that seemed to be trying to lift our spirits by forecasting that "by 2033, two states, Israel and Palestine, will be living side-by-side in uneasy peace." Unger makes all the right arguments to support his thesis that a resolution of their conflict would serve the long-term interests of both the Israelis and Palestinians. But same arguments that focus on the horrific human and economic costs of a long and protracted conflict and the potential enormous benefits resulting from a peace agreement could apply to the national, ethnic, and religious clashes over Cyprus, Kashmir, Sri Lanka, Nagorno-Karabakh, Kosovo, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and Darfur. These are just few of the regional disputes that have remained unresolved and to some extent "frozen," neither full-blown war nor peace. The main reason for that reality is that, for most players in these conflicts, the costs of challenging the status-quo outweigh the perceived benefits of taking action to end the dispute (either through military victory and/or a peace settlement).
This kind of cost-benefit analysis explains why President George W. Bush and his aides decided after 9/11 not to invest too much time or resources in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Operating under the assumption (or self-delusion) that the promotion of the "Freedom Agenda" in the Middle East, starting with Iraq, would create the conditions for resolution of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians (witness the oft-repeated neoconservative argument that the "road to Jerusalem leads through Baghdad").
Indeed, Bush's advisors were committed to the axiom that what is good for America is good for Israel (and vice versa). They argued that a Pax Americana in the region would also tilt the balance of power in favor of Tel Aviv, forcing the Palestinians to accept an arrangement that would favor Israeli interests. Hence, it made no sense to spend Washington's diplomatic capital by pressing Israel, a so-called "strategic ally in the war on terror" to relieve the pressure from, and to make concessions to, the Palestinian leadership. Instead, Washington decided to "park" the Palestinian issue while trying to remake the Middle East by force.
However, by moving beyond the Palestinian-Israeli issue and dealing with the threat of "Islamo-fascism," the Bush administration has pursued policies that have only exacerbated Israel's relations with other Arab countries. Hence, it tried dissuade Israel from pursuing Turkish-backed negotiations with Syria (a junior member of the Axis of Evil). Bush also gave Israel the green light to attack the Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, leading to a war that ended with a strategic stalemate and possibly tipped the balance of power against the American-Israeli alliance.
In any case, when Bush's Middle East "Freedom Agenda" crashed into the reality of the Hamas's electoral victory in Palestine and the strengthening of Iran and its satellites in the region, the administration decided to placate the members of the Saudi-led Arab-Sunni coalition by going through motions of a grand peace-process in Annapolis earlier this year. This same Saudi coalition, based on neoconservative wishful thinking, was expected to form a "strategic consensus" with Israel to contain Iran.
But even a U.S. administration committed to resolving the conflict would have found it close to impossible to move toward an agreement at a time of weak political leadership on both sides. Although there were indications that the two sides could probably agree on the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the Israel-Palestine border issue, there was no sign of the narrowing of the gap between the two national communities over the core existential issues that have separated them, such as the fate of Jerusalem and of the "right of return" of the 1947 Palestinian refugees.
At the same time, it seems that many members of the Reality-Based Community who mocked Bush neocons for their grand designs of transforming Iraq and remaking the Middle East have joined with the Hope-Based Community in proclaiming their high expectations of President Obama bringing peace to the Holy Land. There are hopes among many Obama watchers that the new president will take steps to repair America's ties with the Middle East by withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq and opening a diplomatic dialogue with Iran. Thus having strengthened U.S. status in the Middle East, Obama might be in position to embrace a more activist strategy aimed at bringing about Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation.
Of course, much of what the new president will be able to achieve on the foreign policy front will depend on the administration's ability to contain the American and global economic downturn. The Great Depression redux would make it less likely that the U.S. would launch into any major diplomatic or military moves. But if the economic recession proves to be more manageable than expected, the Obama administration could embrace a more ambitious agenda in the Middle East—accelerating the withdrawal from Iraq through a regional framework that could include Iran.
First, what I was trying to do in my WPJ article was to highlight the gap between the high expectations that many of us seemed to share regarding the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in 1991 (the end of the Cold War, increasing globalization, etc.) with the depressing reality of today's Holy Land—post-9/11, post-Iraq War, and amidst the present global economic crisis. If anything, my retrospective reflected my sense of realism about the ability and willingness on the part of Israelis and Palestinians—with or without outside intervention—to settle their differences and achieve peace in the near future.
Leon Hadar, a research fellow in foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, is the author of Sandstorm: Policy Failure in the Middle East (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).
More by Leon T. Hadar
I was not encouraged after reading David Unger's article in the same issue of WPJ that seemed to be trying to lift our spirits by forecasting that "by 2033, two states, Israel and Palestine, will be living side-by-side in uneasy peace." Unger makes all the right arguments to support his thesis that a resolution of their conflict would serve the long-term interests of both the Israelis and Palestinians. But same arguments that focus on the horrific human and economic costs of a long and protracted conflict and the potential enormous benefits resulting from a peace agreement could apply to the national, ethnic, and religious clashes over Cyprus, Kashmir, Sri Lanka, Nagorno-Karabakh, Kosovo, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and Darfur. These are just few of the regional disputes that have remained unresolved and to some extent "frozen," neither full-blown war nor peace. The main reason for that reality is that, for most players in these conflicts, the costs of challenging the status-quo outweigh the perceived benefits of taking action to end the dispute (either through military victory and/or a peace settlement).
This kind of cost-benefit analysis explains why President George W. Bush and his aides decided after 9/11 not to invest too much time or resources in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Operating under the assumption (or self-delusion) that the promotion of the "Freedom Agenda" in the Middle East, starting with Iraq, would create the conditions for resolution of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians (witness the oft-repeated neoconservative argument that the "road to Jerusalem leads through Baghdad").
Indeed, Bush's advisors were committed to the axiom that what is good for America is good for Israel (and vice versa). They argued that a Pax Americana in the region would also tilt the balance of power in favor of Tel Aviv, forcing the Palestinians to accept an arrangement that would favor Israeli interests. Hence, it made no sense to spend Washington's diplomatic capital by pressing Israel, a so-called "strategic ally in the war on terror" to relieve the pressure from, and to make concessions to, the Palestinian leadership. Instead, Washington decided to "park" the Palestinian issue while trying to remake the Middle East by force.
However, by moving beyond the Palestinian-Israeli issue and dealing with the threat of "Islamo-fascism," the Bush administration has pursued policies that have only exacerbated Israel's relations with other Arab countries. Hence, it tried dissuade Israel from pursuing Turkish-backed negotiations with Syria (a junior member of the Axis of Evil). Bush also gave Israel the green light to attack the Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, leading to a war that ended with a strategic stalemate and possibly tipped the balance of power against the American-Israeli alliance.
In any case, when Bush's Middle East "Freedom Agenda" crashed into the reality of the Hamas's electoral victory in Palestine and the strengthening of Iran and its satellites in the region, the administration decided to placate the members of the Saudi-led Arab-Sunni coalition by going through motions of a grand peace-process in Annapolis earlier this year. This same Saudi coalition, based on neoconservative wishful thinking, was expected to form a "strategic consensus" with Israel to contain Iran.
But even a U.S. administration committed to resolving the conflict would have found it close to impossible to move toward an agreement at a time of weak political leadership on both sides. Although there were indications that the two sides could probably agree on the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the Israel-Palestine border issue, there was no sign of the narrowing of the gap between the two national communities over the core existential issues that have separated them, such as the fate of Jerusalem and of the "right of return" of the 1947 Palestinian refugees.
At the same time, it seems that many members of the Reality-Based Community who mocked Bush neocons for their grand designs of transforming Iraq and remaking the Middle East have joined with the Hope-Based Community in proclaiming their high expectations of President Obama bringing peace to the Holy Land. There are hopes among many Obama watchers that the new president will take steps to repair America's ties with the Middle East by withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq and opening a diplomatic dialogue with Iran. Thus having strengthened U.S. status in the Middle East, Obama might be in position to embrace a more activist strategy aimed at bringing about Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation.
Of course, much of what the new president will be able to achieve on the foreign policy front will depend on the administration's ability to contain the American and global economic downturn. The Great Depression redux would make it less likely that the U.S. would launch into any major diplomatic or military moves. But if the economic recession proves to be more manageable than expected, the Obama administration could embrace a more ambitious agenda in the Middle East—accelerating the withdrawal from Iraq through a regional framework that could include Iran.
Beware the Cult of Obama
You've met them. They may be friends of yours, or family members. You may even be one of them (in which case you'll hate this column). I'm referring to those who've heard the Call of Obama.
Tucker Carlson compares it to a dog whistle: Inaudible to most, but irresistible to those who can hear it.
Obama "walks into a room and you want to follow him somewhere, anywhere," George Clooney gushed to Charlie Rose.
"I'll collect paper cups off the ground to make [Obama's] pathway clear," Halle Berry recently told the Philadelphia Daily News, "I'll do whatever he says." (Does Michelle know about this?)
[A]ny conservative who thinks cultishness is exclusively a leftist phenomenon ought to take a good long look in the mirror.
Hollywood stars aren't known for their political wisdom. More disturbing is how starstruck the mainstream media has become. Hardball host Chris Matthews isn't the only one who gets a "thrill" up his leg at the very thought of our new president.
Last summer, San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford wrote that "Many spiritually advanced people I know … identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who … can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet."
The Politico recently ran a 900-word article entitled "The Power of Obama's Hand," reverentially describing how the president "uses touch to control and console simultaneously," laying hands on supporters and opponents alike.
And in February, author Judith Warner used her New York Times blog to confess that "The other night I dreamt of Barack Obama. He was taking a shower right when I needed to get into the bathroom to shave my legs."
Instead of keeping that information to herself, Warner "launched an email inquiry," which revealed that "many women—not too surprisingly—were dreaming about sex with the president." Those of us who like to point out that the Emperor has no clothes now have to worry that when we do, we may give rise to a new round of lurid cougar fantasies.
Conservatives like to think they're above this sort of thing. Their attitude is summed up by the subtitle of Jerome Corsi's recent bestseller: Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality.
But any conservative who thinks cultishness is exclusively a leftist phenomenon ought to take a good long look in the mirror. Because many of those who decry the "cult of Obama" are the same people who made a flight-suited action figure hero out of such common clay as George W. Bush.
Peggy Noonan called Bush's post-9/11 address to Congress "a God-touched moment and a God-touched speech." Fred Barnes wrote that "the stage was set for Bush to be God's agent of wrath." National Review Online ran ads for the Bush "Top Gun" action figure, and an article about how wonderful it was to have a presidential superhero to complement your GI Joe collection.
Tucker Carlson compares it to a dog whistle: Inaudible to most, but irresistible to those who can hear it.
Obama "walks into a room and you want to follow him somewhere, anywhere," George Clooney gushed to Charlie Rose.
"I'll collect paper cups off the ground to make [Obama's] pathway clear," Halle Berry recently told the Philadelphia Daily News, "I'll do whatever he says." (Does Michelle know about this?)
[A]ny conservative who thinks cultishness is exclusively a leftist phenomenon ought to take a good long look in the mirror.
Hollywood stars aren't known for their political wisdom. More disturbing is how starstruck the mainstream media has become. Hardball host Chris Matthews isn't the only one who gets a "thrill" up his leg at the very thought of our new president.
Last summer, San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford wrote that "Many spiritually advanced people I know … identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who … can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet."
The Politico recently ran a 900-word article entitled "The Power of Obama's Hand," reverentially describing how the president "uses touch to control and console simultaneously," laying hands on supporters and opponents alike.
And in February, author Judith Warner used her New York Times blog to confess that "The other night I dreamt of Barack Obama. He was taking a shower right when I needed to get into the bathroom to shave my legs."
Instead of keeping that information to herself, Warner "launched an email inquiry," which revealed that "many women—not too surprisingly—were dreaming about sex with the president." Those of us who like to point out that the Emperor has no clothes now have to worry that when we do, we may give rise to a new round of lurid cougar fantasies.
Conservatives like to think they're above this sort of thing. Their attitude is summed up by the subtitle of Jerome Corsi's recent bestseller: Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality.
But any conservative who thinks cultishness is exclusively a leftist phenomenon ought to take a good long look in the mirror. Because many of those who decry the "cult of Obama" are the same people who made a flight-suited action figure hero out of such common clay as George W. Bush.
Peggy Noonan called Bush's post-9/11 address to Congress "a God-touched moment and a God-touched speech." Fred Barnes wrote that "the stage was set for Bush to be God's agent of wrath." National Review Online ran ads for the Bush "Top Gun" action figure, and an article about how wonderful it was to have a presidential superhero to complement your GI Joe collection.
Will Obama Bring 'Change' to Bush's War on Terror? Hopefully
President-elect Barack Obama has affirmed his commitment to bring the war in Iraq to a close and to refocus our attention on Afghanistan. To do both, Obama must do more than fix ambitious timelines or offer hazy plans with muddy particulars. He must stick to his campaign pledge that would fundamentally shift the ideological orientation of America's foreign policy establishment: ending the Iraq mission will require engaging Iran, solving Afghanistan will mean dialogue with terrorists.
Obama will certainly bring "change" if he commits to engage directly with Iran. In his judgment, the stability we seek in Iraq is impossible unless we make a concerted effort to induce the actors surrounding Iraq to be responsible stakeholders. To Obama, that can come about only if we engage Iran openly, maturely, and without preconditions.
Since 1979, when a group of Iranian students seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran, the United States has attempted to isolate Iran internationally. Occasionally, the interests of Tehran and Washington overlapped, most recently, when Iran quietly supported America's effort to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. But today, Iran has a budding nuclear program, the region's largest population, an expansive ballistic missile arsenal, and it extends its reach through sponsorship of an effective proxy, the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hizbullah. America's thirty year strategy of isolating Tehran's clerical regime clearly hasn't worked. If diplomatic avenues remain closed, stability in Iraq will remain impossible.
Malou Innocent is a Foreign Policy Analyst at the Cato Institute.
More by Malou Innocent
Under an Obama administration, pulling ourselves out of Iraq means injecting ourselves deeper into Afghanistan, which the President-elect says should be America's "biggest national security priority." His plan is to withdraw U.S. combat forces from Iraq within 16 months and possibly leave 60,000 behind for support. Obama is in luck. This week, the Iraqi parliament approved the Status of Forces Agreement with the United States, which outlines the conditions under which U.S. troops will be permitted to remain in Iraq. Under the deal, U.S. troops will withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011. A pullout by 2011, endorsed by the Iraqi parliament, is chronologically compatible with Obama's call for a 16-month withdrawal (only 7 months shy). Not only would this plan provide Obama with some wiggle-room on his campaign pledge, but the troop cut from Iraq would free up more troops for Afghanistan.
On the Afghan front in America's so-called "war on terror," the White House and U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) are currently reviewing new approaches to stabilize the war-ravaged country. One plan is to peel Pashtun tribes away from hardcore elements of the Taliban, a nuanced policy that will require dialogue with rank and file pro-Taliban insurgents. The incoming Obama administration has indicated it will consider adopting this approach. If it does, Obama would fulfill yet another campaign pledge: actually paying attention to what army generals on the ground have to say. Only weeks ago, CENTCOM chief General David Petreaus said a new U.S. strategy in Afghanistan may include reconciliation with Taliban insurgents. One potential problem with U.S. and NATO efforts in Afghanistan are the militants pouring over the border from western Pakistan. Obama's endorsement of continued unilateral missile strikes and commando raids on Pakistani soil--a continuation of Bush policies--will have ripple effects throughout tribal society, encouraging insurgents to lash out against the government of Pakistan and undermining the authority of sitting Pakistani leaders. Luckily, Barack Obama was broadly welcomed inside Pakistan. If Obama proves capable of improving America's reputation abroad, maybe his policies would be more readily accepted than his predecessor.
Obama will certainly bring "change" if he commits to engage directly with Iran. In his judgment, the stability we seek in Iraq is impossible unless we make a concerted effort to induce the actors surrounding Iraq to be responsible stakeholders. To Obama, that can come about only if we engage Iran openly, maturely, and without preconditions.
Since 1979, when a group of Iranian students seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran, the United States has attempted to isolate Iran internationally. Occasionally, the interests of Tehran and Washington overlapped, most recently, when Iran quietly supported America's effort to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. But today, Iran has a budding nuclear program, the region's largest population, an expansive ballistic missile arsenal, and it extends its reach through sponsorship of an effective proxy, the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hizbullah. America's thirty year strategy of isolating Tehran's clerical regime clearly hasn't worked. If diplomatic avenues remain closed, stability in Iraq will remain impossible.
Malou Innocent is a Foreign Policy Analyst at the Cato Institute.
More by Malou Innocent
Under an Obama administration, pulling ourselves out of Iraq means injecting ourselves deeper into Afghanistan, which the President-elect says should be America's "biggest national security priority." His plan is to withdraw U.S. combat forces from Iraq within 16 months and possibly leave 60,000 behind for support. Obama is in luck. This week, the Iraqi parliament approved the Status of Forces Agreement with the United States, which outlines the conditions under which U.S. troops will be permitted to remain in Iraq. Under the deal, U.S. troops will withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011. A pullout by 2011, endorsed by the Iraqi parliament, is chronologically compatible with Obama's call for a 16-month withdrawal (only 7 months shy). Not only would this plan provide Obama with some wiggle-room on his campaign pledge, but the troop cut from Iraq would free up more troops for Afghanistan.
On the Afghan front in America's so-called "war on terror," the White House and U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) are currently reviewing new approaches to stabilize the war-ravaged country. One plan is to peel Pashtun tribes away from hardcore elements of the Taliban, a nuanced policy that will require dialogue with rank and file pro-Taliban insurgents. The incoming Obama administration has indicated it will consider adopting this approach. If it does, Obama would fulfill yet another campaign pledge: actually paying attention to what army generals on the ground have to say. Only weeks ago, CENTCOM chief General David Petreaus said a new U.S. strategy in Afghanistan may include reconciliation with Taliban insurgents. One potential problem with U.S. and NATO efforts in Afghanistan are the militants pouring over the border from western Pakistan. Obama's endorsement of continued unilateral missile strikes and commando raids on Pakistani soil--a continuation of Bush policies--will have ripple effects throughout tribal society, encouraging insurgents to lash out against the government of Pakistan and undermining the authority of sitting Pakistani leaders. Luckily, Barack Obama was broadly welcomed inside Pakistan. If Obama proves capable of improving America's reputation abroad, maybe his policies would be more readily accepted than his predecessor.
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