It’s not everyday that you get to see one of the top counter-terrorism and national security minds of our country campaign for a candidate in rural parts of a highly-contested battleground state. But if you happened to find yourself in some Virginia communities this past weekend, that’s exactly what you would have witnessed.
Richard Clarke, a 30-year veteran of various national security government posts, served the last three Presidents as a senior White House Advisor, including as chief counter-terrorism advisor on the NSC. This past weekend, he held multiple foreign policy town-hall meetings across Virginia to discuss with voters why Sen. Obama is the strongest candidate on foreign policy and national security experience. FPPfOers joined him in Winchester and then Harrisonburg, as he connected with fellow Virginians – Obama supporters as well as undecideds – on this extremely important topic.
Mr. Clarke outlined how when looking at the most important national security issues of our time, Sen. Obama was right on all of them, and Sen. McCain was wrong on all of them. And it’s that simple.
- Iraq: McCain was one of the leading cheerleaders for the war, as early as in the days following 9/11. Obama denounced the lead-up to the war as early as 2002, warning that invading Iraq would lead to serious sectarian violence and would get us bogged down there indeterminably.
- Getting out of Iraq: McCain has insisted that we stay in Iraq as long as necessary, and he has said he doesn’t care if we need to stay there 100 years. Obama has called for a responsible timetable supported by the commanders on the ground and coordinated with the Iraqi government – exactly the plan called for by the Iraqi government just a few weeks ago and signed off by the Bush administration.
- Afghanistan: McCain has never paid attention to this fragile state, instead choosing to focus his energy on regime change in Iraq. Obama has always acknowleged that the central front of the war on terrorism is Afghanistan, where – thanks to the Bush/McCain misguided policies – Osama Bin Laden is still at large and Al Qaeda has freedom to operate.
- Cross-border security: When Obama declared (over a year ago) that he would not hesitate to send our troops into Pakistan if there was evidence that Al Qaeda was killing US forces in Afghanistan from just across the border, and the Pakistani government was not acting, McCain called him “naive.” The US government has just recently approved the approach suggested by Obama in order to keep our troops in Afghanistan safe.
Mr. Clarke also allowed himself to point out that both candidates have already made their first presidential decision: who will be in charge in the event that they were made unable to operate. In other words, who will lead the country, assure our friends, and deter our enemies, in the event of a national crisis. No need to elaborate on why even this issue reinforces why Sen. Obama has the most foreign policy and national security credentials of the two candidates.
Augusta Free Press has an audio of Mr. Clarke’s appearance in Harrisonburg, for those interested in listening in.
Filed under: FPPfO
great speaker, great post.