September 27th 2008
Just A Couple Obama Lies
B
arack Obama must not have gotten the word: Al Gore invented the internet, and that means it’s just a few keystrokes between what Obama says to America’s voters during the debate, and what the truth is.
First, here’s what Obama said about his chairmanship of the Subcommittee on European Affairs:
Look, I’m very proud of my vice presidential selection, Joe Biden, who is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and as he explains, and as John well knows, the issues of Afghanistan, the issues of Iraq, critical issues like that, don’t go through my subcommittee because they’re done as a committee as a whole.
It ain’t necessarily so. Here’s the charter of Obama’s subcommittee, with pertinent sections highlighted by me:
The subcommittee deals with all matters concerning U.S. relations with the countries on the continent of Europe (except the states of Central Asia that are within the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs), and with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Matters relating to Greenland and the northern polar region are also the responsibility of this subcommittee. This subcommittee’s responsibilities include all matters within the geographic region relating to: (1) terrorism and non-proliferation; (2) crime and illicit narcotics; (3) U.S. foreign assistance programs; and (4) the promotion of U.S. trade and exports.
The war in Afghanistan is a NATO operation, so Obama easily could have held hearings on how NATO is handling the war. If he feels so strongly that the war is being fought badly, if he wants so badly to fix it, why didn’t he hold a hearing or two?
Similarly, he spent some time during the debates tying Afghanistan to al-Qaeda and terrorism, and worrying about the poppy crop there, and he chairs a subcommittee that’s authorized to dig into those issues – and with non-proliferation, a topic he is a self-proclaimed leader in. But no hearings.
The subcommittee chairmanship is a sham, or his interest in Afghanistan is a sham. Or both.
On to Georgia, where McCain slammed Obama for coming out with a very soft statement following the Russian invastion. Obama protested, saying,
No, actually, I think Senator McCain and I agree for the most part on these issues. Obviously, I disagree with this notion that somehow we did not forcefully object to Russians going into Georgia. I immediately said that this was illegal and objectionable.
Thanks to Al Gore,in about 30 seconds I was able to pull up the transcript of the original Obama statement following the Russian invasion:
“I strongly condemn the outbreak of violence in Georgia, and urge an immediate end to armed conflict. Now is the time for Georgia and Russia to show restraint, and to avoid an escalation to full scale war. Georgia’s territorial integrity must be respected. All sides should enter into direct talks on behalf of stability in Georgia, and the United States, the United Nations Security Council, and the international community should fully support a peaceful resolution to this crisis.”
It was an exceeding equivocal, non-condemning statement. If Obama thinks “Georgia’s territorial integrity must be respected”‘ translates into forcefully objecting to Russia’s invasion, I’d like to see when he’s speaking gently.
Anyone following this issue knows that it took Obama three tries to get to a statement as forceful as McCain’s first statement.
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