Democratic Presidential Candidate, and current United States Senator from Illinois, Barrack Obama has said: "When I am president, we will wage the war that has to be won...  The first step must be to get off the wrong battlefield in Iraq, and take the fight to the terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan."*

*quote available in several sources, see The Washington Post, MSNBC, etc.

The implication is that if Obama became president he would send U.S. troops into Pakistan -- with or without permission/cooperation from Pakistan -- in an effort to shutdown the terror camps, training bases, and hiding places that the human rodents that follow Bin Laden have been working in and from.

I have a few questions here -- first, why no major outcry from those that would normally pipe up {oh Clueless One, I'm looking for you here} decrying unilateralism by the U.S.A., and over-reaching by the U.S. President when it comes to defense policies and foreign policy??  If President Bush were to announce today that we will do just what Obama has promised, there'd be, no doubt, a rush to call the President a war monger that doesn't respect international borders or other sovereign nations.  Instead of being seen as leadership, it would be seen as yet another sign that our leader is a mad man, out to destroy the world country by country.

But... because it is Obama making these threats, and because he's a Democrat, and, uh, yeah, because he's a person of Color, not much has really been said against Obama's threat (or is it a promise??)

Is Obama getting a free pass here?  Or, is not much being said against his comments because perhaps his comments are right and just so happen to be coming from someone not named Bush, and not a member of the current administration?

In reality, I'm not sure that Obama isn't right here.  Despite what some of our allies, and most definitely our antagonists in the global community may think, perhaps we should be running roughshod over Pakistan -- at least in some areas -- to accomplish our goals of eradicating these terrorists.  Pakistan clearly doesn't seem to have the stomach to complete the task, and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has had to walk a tightrope and not fall too far to the side of the people in his own country that agree with the Taliban while not inciting an attack from the U.S.A. for harboring and supporting the Taliban and their supporters.

Perhaps we should be taking more control of the fight back from Pakistan, but will it happen while Bush is in the White House and every move he makes is seen as yet more signs of warmongering?  I doubt it.