Wednesday, October 22, 2008

McCain Won't Need Training Wheels

Source: http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=309481528423217

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, October 21, 2008 4:20 PM PT


National Security: Biden's warning that Obama's lack of experience will prompt tyrants and terrorists to "test" him within the first six months can only be seen one way — as a confirmation of our worst fears.



IBD Series: Obama vs. McCain — The Great Divide





"We're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy," Biden said. "He's gonna need help. We're gonna need you to stand with him."


In other words, Americans are supposed to be patient and supportive while an obviously unqualified president learns on the job. He's so inexperienced in military and world affairs, in fact, that his presidency is guaranteed to invite conflict from America's enemies.


Biden's candid remarks merely prove that Obama is not ready to be commander in chief.


Obama's No. 2 seems to be admitting that his 47-year-old boss wouldn't really know what to do if Iran struck Israel or if Russia invaded the Ukraine. He's admitting that he might make mistakes responding to a crisis in the Taiwan Strait. But we ought to vote for him anyway.


There is one thing Obama is certain of, however, and that's the need to gut the military and dismantle our nuclear arsenal.


Last year he promised a left-wing pacifist group in Iowa that he would waste little time slashing both conventional and nuclear weapons as president.


"I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending. I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems. I will not weaponize space. I will slow our development of future combat systems," Obama said. "I will institute an independent defense priorities board to ensure that the Quadrennial Review is not used to justify unnecessary defense spending."


He also vowed to set a goal for a "world without nuclear weapons." To seek that goal, "I will not develop nuclear weapons," he said. "I will seek a global ban on the production of fissile material. And I will negotiate with Russia to take our ICBMs off hair-trigger alert, and to achieve deep cuts in our nuclear arsenal."


His plan, needless to say, is frighteningly irresponsible given the world threats. And music to the ears of everyone from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Vladimir Putin.


Proposing "deep cuts in our nuclear arsenal" amounts to unilateral disarmament, and it's suicidal given China's, and now Russia's, aggressive military buildup.


Meanwhile, Iran and North Korea threaten nuclear madness, and Osama bin Laden dreams of unleashing a nuclear 9/11 on America.


In contrast, John McCain has vowed: "We must continue to deploy a safe and reliable nuclear deterrent, robust missile defenses and superior conventional forces that are capable of defending the United States and our allies."


We've been down this road before. Bin Laden tested Clinton with terrorist attacks in 1993, 1996, 1998 and 2000, and each time he flinched. Obama, working with perhaps a filibuster-proof Congress, would set back the war on terror to those feckless Clinton days.


Delivering on promises made to his pals Reps. John Conyers and Keith Ellison, he would loosen immigration from high-risk Muslim countries, dismantle key parts of the Patriot Act and criminalize profiling at airports all within his first 100 days in office.


Somali warlords also took advantage of Clinton's lack of experience. Like Clinton, Obama believes "real" national security is "humanitarian foreign aid" — essentially using our troops as international meals-on-wheels in Africa and other trouble spots.


Nobody dared test Ronald Reagan. Nobody. And McCain, a war hero who has actually spent time with troops on the ground in hot spots around the world, as well as met with world leaders, would inspire the same kind of respect.


We can avoid dangerous testing and mischief on the part of our enemies by electing him commander in chief, rather than a tyro requiring foreign-policy training wheels during at least the first six months in office.

No comments: