As Pakistan Moves on Al Qaeda, President Obama Letting Strategic Advantage Slip Away

Secretary of State, Hillary ClintonHillary Clinton, broke an inexplicable silence of a long list of public officials by publicly scolding the Pakistani government for not doing more to root out Al Qaeda and its leader, Osama Bin Laden, over the past eight years. While this scolding was long overdue, it also comes at a time when the Pakistan government is indeed deploying 28,000 troops to southern Waziristan to confront the deeply embedded Al Qaeda fighters.

Now that the Pakistan government has taken up the fight to Al Qaeda, it is even more important that President Obama get off the fence and make a decision about troop levels in Afghanistan. If the Pakistan forces have any degree of success against Al Qaeda fighters, these nomadic terrorists will undoubtedly wind their way back into Afghanistan. If, however, President Obama stretches out his decision until the results of the Afghanistan run-off election, a major strategic advantage to meet the Al Qaeda fleeing from Pakistan will certainly be lost.

It is really ironic that President Obama, who made such a huge point of saying that Afghanistan was the “correct” war all throughout the president campaign, seems unable or unprepared to make the tough decisions needed to prevail in the Afghanistan conflict. Now, it appears, Obama will also let a huge opportunity to squeeze the Al Qaeda disappear as he waits to make the most politically correct decision.