McCain, Obama advisers briefed on Afghanistan

Source: http://www.javno.com

Good news: the White House is taking an increasingly proactive stance on Afghanistan. Senior members of the Bush administration (along with representatives from NATO and the United Nations) recently met with foreign policy aides working for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), according to the IHT.

The briefing on Afghanistan appears to have been the most extensive that Bush administration officials have provided on any issue to both presidential campaigns….

“The intent was to ensure that everyone understand that the situation is very fast-moving, and if the new administration spends three months trying to figure out what to do, it’s too late,” said one administration official who participated in the discussion.

And I was half-expecting the president to leave the issue entirely up to his successor’s judgment. It’s reassuring to see that the administration, as it nears lame-duck status, hasn’t totally resigned itself to the history books just yet.

McCain gets it right on Pakistan

Check out this clip of the first presidential debate. Senator Obama makes some stinging remarks about Senator McCain’s “bomb Iran” joke, and it’s certainly entertaining. But I want to look closer and examine the policy differences we’re seeing between the two candidates.

Consider what Obama’s proposing: a continuation of the unilateral military strikes into Pakistan that, so far, have gotten mixed results at best and, at worst, have damaged the U.S.’s relationship with Islamabad as well as the region’s citizens. I actually think McCain hits the nail on the head, here. Without Pakistani cooperation, the new Bush strategy of pursuing cross-border attacks will be doomed.

That said, I have to disagree with McCain’s approach to foreign policy broadly articulated. It’s a heavy-handed, strongman strategy that relies on, as Obama suggested in debate regarding his opponent’s budget policy, “a hatchet where you need a scalpel.”