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Thursday, July 17, 2008
Obama words, Obama words, Obama words..
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Barack Obama is a guy who picks up words and phrases from Category A and Category B briefing papers so that he sounds knowledgeable but says nothing.
An example comes from Wednesday’s panel discussion on national security at Purdue University. Part A is understandable: “As long as nuclear weapons exist, we’ll retain a strong deterrent. But we will make the goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons a central element of our nuclear policy.” OK. Fair enough. That’s a defensible policy position, even though the idea of a leftist community organizer from Chicago making those decisions makes me exceedingly nervous.
The trap I fear is that he’d be so eager to produce results that he’d give away the store in return for promises and illusions. But I’ll grant that he’ll have access to some adults, like Sam Nunn, and may be persuaded by more seasoned counsel.
At the Perdue session, after offering one phrase from Category A of the National Security Dialogue, Obama turned to Category B and said this:
“The danger … is that we are constantly fighting the last war, responding to the threats that have come to fruition, instead of staying one step ahead of the threats of the 21st century.”
Walk down the street. Stop a liberal and/or a wino. Ask him about the problem in the military’s conduct of war. All together now: The problem is “that we are constantly fighting the last war” blah, blah, blah.
I will note that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pursued a small force/high mobility strategy in Iraq that was not an example of the tendency to fight the last war — and he got creamed by the critics, including John McCain, who argued for a much larger force.
Anyway, I’d defy anybody to take Obama’s charge that we should respond “to the threats that have come to fruition instead of staying one step ahead of the threats of the 21st century” and translate it into a policy that conveys anything. It’s just words from Category B.
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