Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has taken a detour from his US presidential campaign trail this week to go on a “fact-finding and listening” tour of Europe and the Middle East. But John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, is leading a chorus of pundits criticizing Obama’s trip as variously long-overdue, misguided and inappropriate.
They say it’s long-overdue because, even though he predicated his campaign on opposition to the war in Iraq, this is the first time Obama is visiting the war zone in Iraq in over two years.
In addition, they note that Obama is chairman of the Senate subcommittee that has oversight responsibility for the war in Afghanistan. And they exclaim indignantly that, even worse than the fact that he has never visited Afghanistan, Obama has never even held a hearing on the conduct of this war.
If he was so concerned about Afghanistan and the threat there and the need to send troops, don’t you think he should have gone there?
[John McCain]
Indeed, I’m obliged to admit that, even as a die-hard Obama supporter, I think these criticisms are legitimate – especially regarding Afghanistan. After all, Obama maintains that Afghanistan, not Iraq, is the number one front in the war on terrorism. Moreover, he insists that al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters are resurgent on this front because too many US resources have been misused in quelling a de facto civil war between Sunni and Shia factions in Iraq.
This is not to say that Obama cannot offer an informed strategy for getting America out of Iraq (or for fighting the war in Afghanistan) from the campaign trail in America. After all, he has military advisers who can brief him thoroughly in this regard.
Instead, his failure to visit these countries made him vulnerable to political attacks about making up his mind before going on his fact-finding mission and about being all talk and no action.
It is noteworthy, however, that, despite this criticism, it’s Obama’s plan for a phased withdrawal from Iraq over 16 months, not McCain’s for a 100-year occupation, that has been endorsed by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
…US presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right time frame for a withdrawal….
[Nouri al-Maliki in a recent interview with German magazine SPIEGEL ]
They say Obama’s trip is misguided because he’s planning stops in Israel and Europe that seem more worthy of a US president than a mere presidential candidate. Never mind that the media are covering his every move as if he were already president of the United States: and there’s the rub.
Because much of the criticism in this respect stems either from McCain’s political envy or from reporters’ access envy.
I don’t know that people in Missouri are going to like seeing tens of thousands of Europeans screaming for The One.
[John McCain]
Of course, one can be forgiven for not recalling that McCain himself has traveled to many foreign countries, including Israel and Mexico, since becoming the presumptive Republican nominee. The difference is that people in those countries couldn’t care any less about his visit; whereas, they’re planning for Obama’s visit as if he were a rock star.
Incidentally, every reporter (or pundit) you hear criticizing Obama’s trip is probably one who resents not being invited along for this historic ride….
Finally, they say his trip is inappropriate because he plans to emulate former presidents Reagan and Kennedy by giving a major “campaign” speech on US-EU relations at the Brandenburg Gate in Germany. Indeed, just imagine the criticism (from Frenchmen and Americans) if, while campaigning for the French presidency, Nicolas Sarkozy had come to Washington, DC to give a speech at the Lincoln Memorial…?
When John McCain goes on foreign trips, he is legitimately going on fact-finding missions to learn new information. He doesn’t give huge campaign speeches overseas he goes to inform his worldview.
[McCain aide]
In fact, if Obama were going ahead with his speech at this hallowed venue, this criticism would have merit. Not least because no less a person than German Chancellor Angela Merkel was opposed to it. As things stand, however, the criticism became so acute that Obama’s handler’s were forced to relocate to the Victory Column, which may actually prove a more appropriate venue in more ways than one….
Nevertheless, when all is said and done, I think Obama’s trip will prove a net plus (for his campaign).
After all, no matter how belated or misguided, it will give him a world stage upon which to strut his stuff as (putative) commander in chief; i.e., during highly publicized visits to war zones to consult with generals on the front lines. And it will give him an opportunity to demonstrate why he more than McCain is more likely to improve America’s image and goodwill with people around the world.
Meanwhile, TV networks are giving pundits an inordinate amount of airtime just to expound on the myriad ways they think Obama might say or do something that undermines his campaign back home. Yet all any of them has to say is that Obama could not possibly say or do anything that is more damaging than continually mixing up who the Sunni and Shia are in Iraq – as McCain did during his most recent trip there.
Frankly, given Maliki’s endorsement and how positively presidential he looked on the first two legs of his trip, Obama has already passed the commander-in-chief test. Not to mention the Trumanesque authority he displayed when he reminded the press that it doesn’t matter what Gen. Petraeus wants because, as president, he will be the one setting America’s military agenda.
And, with that mission accomplished, the political atmospherics will only get better for him in places like Germany, France and England.
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