Obama Naive on National Security:
I'm of the mind that electing this buffoon will lead to the deaths of many more of our men and women, civilian and military.
There's really no way to sugar coat it.
Well... ok... there is the John Bolton way (via Larwyn):
Q: Mr. Bolton, Senator McCain has been extremely critical of Barack Obama over the past week for saying that he would meet with the leaders of Iran, North Korea, Syria, Cuba and Venezuela without precondition. What’s the risk of talking?
Bolton: Well, I think the question you always have to ask yourself in a situation like this is what are the cost and benefits of negotiation. I think it is far too facile, as Senator Obama has said, to simply sit down without precondition with leaders like the leaders of Iran and North Korea.
I’ll just name a couple of costs you have to weigh in the balance. First, the legitimacy you confer on leaders like that -- legitimacy from meeting as equals with the United States that they can use both in their own internal political situation and externally in the broader world. And secondly -- and this is particularly important in the case of states that are seeking or already have weapons of mass destruction -- time works on the side of the proliferators. They use negotiations -- and the Iranians and North Koreans have both proven this -- to perfect the complex science and technology they need to master having these weapons. So simply sitting down with them gives them an asset -- time -- that they couldn’t otherwise obtain.
So when you look at this and say, it’s not a question of do you talk with adversaries or not -- the question is, what’s the cost-benefits analysis? And in these cases, I think Senator McCain clearly has the better of the argument.
Q: Well, let me ask you this -- and I think your comments there may point to your answer -- now Senator Obama has made a great deal in response in this back-and-forth in saying look, I’m saying without precondition, but I’m not saying without preparation. There would be preliminary diplomatic contact before we reach the level of heads of state talking to each other. Does that change the equation at all in your mind?
Bolton: No, and I must say that is a silly, indeed, embarrassing statement for a candidate for president of the United States to make. Obviously, you make preparations before you engage in any meeting. You made preparations before this interview. Of course there are preparations. The notion that you meet without precondition, however, is not a process point. It’s a substantive point, and for him to try to align the distinction that way -- I just think that’s embarrassing. I think the American people are a lot smarter than that.
God, let it be so.
UPDATED: Via BlackFive, an ad worth our time, an ad worth Barack Obama's time:
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