The Obama-Palin Doctrine

McCain has criticized Obama repeatedly for saying that the US should go into Pakistan to pursue terrorists. In a recent interview, George Stephanopoulos shows McCain a video of Palin suggesting the same course of action. When confronted with the video, McCain blames people for recording conversations and the media for assuming that anything that Palin says during a conversation is official policy.



(H/T: Open Left)

Leaving aside the ridiculousness of McCain's arguments, I actually agree with McCain on the policy being discussed. There isn't much good that can come out of publicly stating that the US would compromise the territorial integrity of a sovereign nation, especially when we are talking about a hypothetical situation. Obama's statements, I believe, are at least in part designed to make him appear strong on national defense. That may work for the campaign and for the purposes of winning an election, but the bluster is hardly conducive to diplomatic efforts.

Does that get McCain off the hook? Not so much. McCain makes a big deal about using reserve and restraint while talking about the possibility of going into Pakistan, but it seems that this talk of reserve is, well, reserved exclusively for Pakistan. He has no problems ratcheting up the rhetoric when it comes to Iran or Cuba, or Chavez, or when it comes to snubbing allies like Spain.

Given his generally hawkish stance of foreign policy, McCain’s posturing on Pakistan seems mostly designed to draw contrasts with Obama and make him look naïve. Either that or it is a continuation George Bush’s schizophrenic policy on Pakistan, which would have far worse implications than political posturing implied in previous sentence.