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Monday, September 27, 2004

 

Obama and nuclear pre-emption http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0409250111sep25,1,7098310.story?coll=chi-news-hed

posted by Aziz P. at Monday, September 27, 2004 permalink View blog reactions
I think the ISraeilis were wise to have bombed Iraq's Osirak reactor a few decades ago - and that kind of pre-emptive strike in general is something that, unlike land invasions of non-nuclear non-threatening countries, something that needs to be consdered "on the table". The idea that fanatical islamic terrorists could get their hand on a nuclear device is beyond terrifying - it;s a much more direct threat to the global order - not just America - than 9-11 ever could have been.

This kind of talk from Obama is pretty much the only realistic attitude left - but it has the benefit of helping to reclaim the tough Democrat mantle from JFK's ghost as well.

U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama suggested Friday that the United States one day might have to launch surgical missile strikes into Iran and Pakistan to keep extremists from getting control of nuclear bombs. . . .

Obama said that violent Islamic extremists are a vastly different brand of foe than was the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and they must be treated differently.

"With the Soviet Union, you did get the sense that they were operating on a model that we could comprehend in terms of, they don't want to be blown up, we don't want to be blown up, so you do game theory and calculate ways to contain," Obama said. "I think there are certain elements within the Islamic world right now that don't make those same calculations.


(via Glenn, who I wish had trackbalk enabled)

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Nation-Building was founded by Aziz Poonawalla in August 2002 under the name Dean Nation. Dean Nation was the very first weblog devoted to a presidential candidate, Howard Dean, and became the vanguard of the Dean netroot phenomenon, raising over $40,000 for the Dean campaign, pioneering the use of Meetup, and enjoying the attention of the campaign itself, with Joe Trippi a regular reader (and sometime commentor). Howard Dean himself even left a comment once. Dean Nation was a group weblog effort and counts among its alumni many of the progressive blogsphere's leading talent including Jerome Armstrong, Matthew Yglesias, and Ezra Klein. After the election in 2004, the blog refocused onto the theme of "purple politics", formally changing its name to Nation-Building in June 2006. The primary focus of the blog is on articulating purple-state policy at home and pragmatic liberal interventionism abroad.