U.S. Senator Barack Obama, a front-runner in the U.S. Democratic presidential field, was under fire Tuesday evening for his recent remarks that America should carry out unilateral strikes on al-Qaida targets in Pakistan.
During a 90-minute debate in Chicago, which was sponsored by the AFL(American Federation of Labor)-CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) and broadcast live by MSNBC, Obama, a U.S. senator from Illinois, was chided by Senator Christopher Dodd from Connecticut over his recent remarks about Pakistan.
Obama had suggested that he would strike al-Qaida targets in Pakistan if he had information about their location without the permission of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
"I think it is highly irresponsible of people who are running for the presidency and seeking that office to suggest we may be willing unilaterally to invade a nation that we are trying to get to be more cooperative with us in Afghanistan and elsewhere," Dodd said.
In response, Obama said it was "amusing that those who helped to authorize and engineer the biggest foreign policy disaster in our generation are now criticizing me for making sure that we are on the right battlefield and not the wrong battlefield in the war against terrorism."
Dodd, and some others in the debate, including New York Senator Hillary Clinton and former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, voted in 2002 to authorize the war against Iraq.
"If we have actionable intelligence on al-Qaida operatives, including bin Laden, and President Musharraf cannot act, then we should," Obama insisted.
Clinton then joined in the fight. "I do not believe people running for president should engage in hypotheticals," she said.
"I think it is a very big mistake to telegraph that, and to destabilize the Musharraf regime which is fighting for its life against the Islamist extremists who are in bed with al-Qaida and Taliban," said Clinton, another front-runner.
"And remember: Pakistan has nuclear weapons. The last thing we want is to have al Qaida-like followers in charge of Pakistan and having access to nuclear weapons," she added.
"Remember you shouldn't always say everything you think if you're running for president, because it has consequences across the world," Clinton warned.
In defending himself, Obama said he did not suggest the United States should strike al-Qaida targets in Pakistan immediately. "What I said was that we have to work with Musharraf, because the biggest threat to American security right now is in the northwest provinces of Pakistan."
During the debate, the seven candidates agreed that more money should be invested in domestic infrastructure following the bridge collapse in Minnesota last week, and less in the Iraq war. They also debated Iraq, healthcare, union rights, recovery in Hurricane Katrina-stricken areas, and other issues.
The AFL-CIO, which has 55 member unions and represents about 10 million workers, is the largest federation of labor unions in the United States. Under its rules, the federation needs the consent of two-thirds of its member unions before it can endorse a presidential candidate. It did not endorse any candidate in the 2004 presidential elections.
Source: Xinhua
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