Pakistan, a country of 165 million people, is composed of six major ethnic groups, one of them the Pashtuns of the northwest. The Pakistani Taliban are largely drawn from this group. The more settled Pashtun population is centered in the North-West Frontier province, with its capital at Peshawar. Between the NWFP and Afghanistan are badlands administered rather as Native American reservations are in the U.S., called the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, with a population of some 3 million. These areas abut Pashtun provinces of Afghanistan, also a multiethnic society, but one in which Pashtuns are a plurality.

[snip]

Nor is it at all clear that sending more U.S. troops to southern Afghanistan can resolve the problem of the resurgence of the Taliban there. American and NATO search-and-destroy missions alienate the local population and fuel, rather than quench, the insurgency. Resentment over U.S. airstrikes on innocent civilians and wedding parties is growing. Brazen attacks on U.S. forward bases and on institutions such as the prison in the southern city of Kandahar are becoming more frequent.

Before he jumps into Afghanistan with both feet, Obama would be well advised to consult with another group of officers. They are the veterans of the Russian campaign in Afghanistan. Russian officers caution that Afghans cannot be conquered, as the Soviets attempted to do in the 1980s with nearly twice as many troops as NATO and the U.S. now have in the country, and with three times the number of Afghan troops as Karzai can deploy.

Secondly, right now, the concern of the voters is very much with down to earth, economic, domestic issues. So a candidate giving some speech in a country across the ocean, talking about bigger world issues, isn't going to be a vote-getter.

That doesn't mean that I believe that we should engage in constant search and destroy missions.  IMO, we should establish a base of protection in the south and rebuild it and then branch forward.

However this mission MUST be multilateral.  We cannot be the only people there and it can't be just strong armed bit players.  

But there were so many things he was sort of trying to say, such as Mr. Gorbachev, tear down all these metaphorical walls that divide humanity. Like Iran, Bangladesh, Chad, Darfur, Zimbabwe (why Berlin to address all of this?)

He also had some global warming snippets in there. And some shameless Kennedy imitating about "bearing any burdens."

I could throw in my usual blah blah about Obama not living up to my expectations, but what's the point? Neither he nor Obama supporters listen to us anyway except to either A) Take us for granted or B) Tell us we don't matter and/or are stupid refuseniks.

The fact that he reminded people more of Reagan than of JFK should cause some pause with some people today, make them ask why he sounds like that? Is it how he said it, or WHAT he said? And if it is WHAT he said, what are some other similarities between Obama and Reagan we should take note of?

I kid you not - heard it on the news in the car.

McCain says it is never inappropriate to visit American wounded.