Barack Obama's new strength: foreign policy

nj.com ^ | February 21, 2010 | By John Farmer/The Star-Ledger

[Jet Jaguar]

Barack Obama may be playing defense on the domestic front, but he’s clearly taken the offensive in an area not normally a source of Democratic Party strength — national security and foreign policy.

In recent days and weeks, administration efforts have resulted in the deaths of 12 of the top 20 al Qaeda leaders, the result mostly of attacks by pilotless drone aircraft over Pakistan; the capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, number two Taliban boss in Pakistan and leader of the military campaign in Afghanistan; and the launch of a 15,000-troop attack against the principal poppy-rich Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan.

You didn’t know that? It was all there in the newspapers. Of course, if you get your news from television, especially cable television, you probably didn’t see it.

Bad news, cockamamie commentary and round-the-clock controversy, real and imaginary, is mostly all you get on cable these days. Why bother with good news, like success against distant terrorists, when bad news back home makes the viewers manic and drives up ratings.

But Dick Cheney’s criticism notwithstanding, the truth is that Obama’s on a tear against terrorism in two of its key breeding grounds — Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Some Republicans have grudgingly acknowledged the success of the president’s stepped-up campaign against al Qaeda and the Taliban, but argue that it’s merely a continuation of Bush administration policy. If so, it’s Bush policy on steroids.

For the fact is the Bush team, in its preoccupation with Iraq and nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, did virtually nothing for eight years to counter the Taliban comeback in Afghanistan.

At the same time, Obama’s trips abroad and meetings with world leaders have made real progress in repairing the damage to the American image abroad done by the Bush-Cheney policy of unilateralism and of disdain

[Noob1999]

....................Has NOTHING 2 do w/BHO. Instead, there is a technical development that is very secret and has radically enhanced the effectiveness of drone strikes. Not going 2 say more...................

No, com’mon and say it!

If Bush had made public that the Pakistani’s were in any way co-operating with the free world in actively taking out the cock-roaches, the world media would write about how the American power hegemony was trying to take over the world.
Zer0’s press gets the pass, he’s the new John Wayne in town!