[Peace-discuss] War party

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Obey's stupid and even racist remarks represent the extreme liberal "thinking" 
in the Congress and, alas, the best chance we have of defeating Obama's $83.4 
billion for more killing.  At least he's consistent: "On March 7, 2007, a video 
was posted on YouTube of Congressman Obey arguing with proponents of defunding 
the Iraq War about their position on how to end the war. He angrily referred to 
them as 'idiot liberals' and told them Democrats would not cut funding for the 
war because it would cut funding to other vital military functions such as armor 
and medical supplies for U.S. military personnel, but were instead working on an 
amendment to order an end to the war altogether. He also stated that to one of 
the proponents that '...if that isn't good enough for you, you're smoking 
something illegal!' Obey later apologized for the incident."  And of course the 
Democrats' amendment ended the war altogether.  --CGE]

	Obey rains on Obama's parade
	Politico
	David Rogers – Thu Apr 23

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey threw a bucket of cold water 
on the Obama administration’s foreign policy agenda Thursday, admitting serious 
doubt about success in Afghanistan and Pakistan and no appetite for helping the 
International Monetary Fund until European allies do more to stimulate their 
economies.

The Wisconsin Democrat, who has been largely silent to date, made his remarks as 
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared before his panel on the White 
House’s $83.4 billion request to fund continued military operations in Iraq and 
Afghanistan as well as beefed-up spending to forge a closer partnership with 
Pakistan along the Afghan border.

“I frankly don’t know what I am going to do on your supplemental request because 
I’m very concerned that it is going to wind up with us being stuck in a problem 
that nobody knows how to get out of,” Obey said of the increased U.S. commitment 
to the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. After nearly eight years of war, largely in 
Iraq, he said he feared that the United States would find itself consumed by 
another eight years of conflict that would “devour” President Barack Obama’s 
ability to make progress elsewhere.

In what appeared to be a slap at the White House’s persistent upbeat tone, Obey 
warmly praised Obama but then added that the United States can’t approach 
“problems as if we were presidents of the Optimist Club.”

“We have got to look at reality,” he said. “I don’t want to see all of the other 
goals of this administration, both foreign and domestic, be devoured by this 
insoluble problem.”

“I don’t question your goals, and I don’t question the rationale behind any of 
the decisions that underlie the policies that this administration intends to 
pursue,” Obey told Clinton. “What I question is if we in fact have the tools.”

The administration’s strategy to battle the Taliban in Afghanistan rests on 
Islamabad’s help, but Obey said 40 years of experience in Congress and the 
foreign policy arena has only taught him that Pakistan is “a country of deal 
makers who don’t keep their deals.”

“I have absolutely no confidence in the ability of the existing Pakistan 
government to do one blessed thing,” the chairman said. “And without a 
functioning government focused on the right issues in Pakistan, we cannot 
achieve our goals in that region.”

For this reason, he hinted broadly that the administration must set some time 
limits — perhaps a year — on the U.S. commitment, after which some judgment 
could be made on the chances of success.

“Americans are funny people. It seems to me in our nature that we think there is 
a solution for everything," Obey said. "But we also run into some problems that 
at best can simply be managed but not solved.”

“I am convinced that this is one of those problems that we can’t solve; we can 
at best manage,” Obey told Clinton. And to get cooperation from Pakistan’s 
government and intelligence services, “they need to know we’re not going to be 
stuck there backing them up forever.”

Clinton acknowledged increased concern in the administration itself over the 
steady expansion of the Taliban insurgency inside Pakistan itself, but the 
secretary took heart that there is some evidence as well that Pakistan’s leaders 
— so historically focused on India — better seen the threat within their own 
borders.

“Changing paradigms and mindsets is not easy,” the secretary said. “But I do 
believe that there is an increasing awareness, on the part of not just the 
Pakistani government but Pakistani people, that this insurgency coming closer 
and closer to major cities does pose such a threat.”

“Now, there are no promises. They have to do it. I mean, we can support them; we 
can encourage them,” Clinton testified. “I want to underscore the feeling we 
get, which is that if you have been locked in a mortal contest with someone you 
think is your principal — in fact, only — real enemy, and all of a sudden 
circumstances change, but they don't change so much that you're still not 
worried about that other enemy, it just takes some time. And I think that there 
is a growing understanding of that within the Pakistani leadership.”

As proposed by the administration, the supplemental spending request doesn’t yet 
include an estimated $108 billion in additional funds covering U.S. 
contributions pledged to the IMF. Part of the delay is owed to a technical 
dispute over how the money should be scored under budget rules. But as a veteran 
of many such IMF funding battles, Obey knows how difficult they can be in any 
case, given conservative resistance and the bailout weariness of today’s Washington.

Thus his remarks addressed to European allies were striking as he seemed to 
demand more of an effort on their part first to do more to stimulate their 
economies — just as Obama has tried to do at home with his economic recovery 
programs.

“I’ve put a lot of IMF money through the Congress, but I have to tell you, I 
have great reluctance to do so given the fact that the Western European 
governments, especially Germany, have declined to provide the kind of economic 
stimulus that the world seems to expect of us but they don’t seem to be willing 
to deliver themselves,” Obey said. “If they don’t pull their fair share ... we 
are going to have a prolonged worldwide recession, and the United States isn’t 
going to be exempt from that.”