Obama Gets Tough on Terror

By James Gordon Meek

Today we write in the New York Daily News about Sen. Barack Obama's effort to stake his claim to the issue of countering Al Qaeda, including my analysis of the wisdom of threatening major military operations to nail Osama Bin Laden and company in Pakistan. Suggesting a unilateral approach to striking Bin Laden has the Pakistani government in an uproar. They already had their blood up from the Bush administration's attack last month on their inability to stop Al Qaeda from regenerating itself in the northwest tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

The speech by the Illinois Democrat was surprisingly sophisticated for this early in the campaign season - even as a response to Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) calling his foreign policy views "naive" - and demonstrated an unusual depth of understanding about the secret CIA-run war along the Afghan-Pakistan border. One line in particular by Obama jumped out at me: "The Taliban pursues a hit and run strategy, striking in Afghanistan, then skulking across the border to safety."

That is not only true - and true also of Al Qaeda-led fighters conducting cross-border ops - but surprising to hear in any public setting these days, much less a high-profile political speech by a leading presidential candidate. Obama had help from a group of former Clinton and Bush National Security Council veterans, including some who haven't even endorsed him: Richard Clarke, Susan Rice, Rand Beers and Mary McCarthy.

Obama also promised to fulfill a U.S. pledge that President Bush has failed to deliver in the six years since the 9/11 attacks. Obama said he'll increase nonmilitary development aid for Afghanistan by 50%. That would amount to about $3 billion a year for the beleaguered country, where hearts and minds are being lost due to rising civilian casualties and empty promises to rebuild what war has destroyed.

"It's definitely not enough," Robert Grenier, the ex-CIA station chief in Pakistan who oversaw toppling the Taliban, told me yesterday.

A year ago, Afghanistan's ambassador in Washington, Said Jawad, told me that his government needs $5 billion a year just to scrape by.

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