Obama's Terrorism Policy is Correct

Obama caused a stir last week when he said that if he were president, there were actionable intelligence, and Pakistan failed to act on it, he would. He criticized the Bush administration for being so wrapped up in Iraq that he didn't put the focus where it should be: the terrorists holding up in western Pakistan.

Conservatives like Romney bellowed that Obama went from being a dove on Iraq to wanting to attack an allied nation. (And anyone who is persuaded by that sort of rhetoric needs really to take off their blinders, because that's a ludicrous summary of what Obama said.)

But even Senators Clinton and Dodd went after him on it, criticizing him for suggesting that we would attack a sovereign nation's territory without their permission.

Then, late last week, I watched Charlie Rose's interview with Senator Joe Biden. If you want a Democratic president that is an expert on foreign affairs, Joe Biden's your man. He is the most knowledgeable person running for the office this time around. It's very nearly enough for me to overlook his brashness and occasional abrasiveness. But I bring Biden up because he said that Obama was hardly setting a different direction for the country with what he was saying. It is, he said, the current American foreign policy that if we have actionable intelligence on terrorists plotting against us, and if we cannot get the cooperation of the country where the terrorists are located, we will act against them alone. Biden found it at once amusing and telling that neither Senator Clinton nor Senator Dodd appeared to know that. He was critical of Obama for actually saying it, however, as such things are better left unsaid. And he was also critical of Obama for having said that he would not consider the nuclear option if we were to be at war with a radically fundamentalist Pakistan, which is a nuclear power. Biden said you never take the nuclear option off the table, because of its deterrent effect. If they know that you might use it, they're less likely to use it themselves.

Biden knows his stuff. He should be considered seriously for the nomination. I know that however much I like Obama, I'll continue to consider Biden.

Below is the Charlie Rose interview with Senator Joseph Biden.