The Obama Difference

Contrasting Obama to McCain-Bush is a simple exercise; usually it involvements the application of intelligent thought. But there's a fundamental aspect of Obama's politics that is too often overlooked, but is critical to understanding what kind of president he will be. This aspect was made clear in his recent CBS interview with Lara Logan:

Logan: What would be a 'mission accomplished' for you in Afghanistan?

Obama: Well, a 'mission accomplished' would be that we had stabilized Afghanistan, that the Afghan people are experiencing rising standards of living, that we have made sure that we are disabling al-Qaeda and the Taliban so that they can longer attack Afghanistan, they can no longer engage in attacks against targets of Pakistan, and they can't target the United States or its allies.

This is the "Obama difference." Before speaking of military aspects of success, he focuses on the Afghan people: a stable
nation and people with a rising standard of living. Up to this point, the interview was entirely about military and related issues: fighting and defeating al Queda and the Taliban, killing bin Laden, etc. Yet to the question of success would be, Obama speaks of the lives of people in Afghanistan.

And he did it in a natural manner. It was just the order of his thoughts on the asking of the question: The people of Afghanistan and then military aspects. We hear almost nothing of this nature from McCain, and when we heard anything of the sort from Bush, we could only expect those people to be in deep doo-doo. But for Barack Obama, military objectives are never an end in themself. What matters are the lives of the people for whom military options are a final resort.

McCain would, like his recent Republican predecesors, use war as a tool of American hegemony. Obama would use it when all else failed and nothing else would suffice. The great thing about that approach is that war becomes virtually useless. Being dedicated to ending war is not surrendar; it's victory over war. It's what the people of embattled nations need. And it's made possible by a president who values those people and the nature and quality of their lives.