Are you a conservative who would like to avenge Barry Goldwater's loss to Lyndon Johnson?  Do you have the knowledge and equipment to produce a video for YouTube? 

Have I got an ad for you.  In 1964 Lyndon Johnson produced an ad called  the "Daisy Ad"  that featured a little girl with a daisy followed by a  video of a growing mushroom cloud.
 
Barack Obama's  repeated threats to invade nuclear armed Pakistan to capture or kill Osama bin Laden make him  a perfect subject for  a modern version of  such an ad.

The ad would begin with a clip of Obama in the second debate saying ""And if we have Osama bin Laden in our sights and the Pakistani government is unable or unwilling to take them out, then I think that we have to act and we will take them out."

Next would be a news anchor, or possibly two reporters.  The anchor or 1st reporter would say: "President Barack Obama today told Pakistan to turn over Osama bin Laden or the United States would take care of him."

Then the anchor or 2nd reporter would say:  "The government of Pakistan has responded to President Obama's ultimatum by stating that it does not take orders from the United States and any attack on Pakistani civilians would have grave consequences."

Next would be a video clip of a little girl with a daisy followed by a video of a mushroom cloud.

 I have an 8 year old computer and dialup, so I'm not in a position to make such an ad.  I believe such an ad could harm Obama the way the original ad harmed Goldwater.

I've seen occasional recent references  comparing  Pakistan to Cambodia during the Vietnam War.  If the Bush administration, or Barack Obama, thinks the two are comparable it is making the biggest miscalculation since the U.S.  made the mistake of getting too close to China in the Korean War.   Obama wants to expand the current Bush attacks on border areas to include an attack on Osama bin Laden where ever he might be in Pakistan.

U.N. forces had routed the North Korea Army and appeared to on the verge of winning when China became concerned that the Americans might decide to go ahead and conquer China as well because China had been supplying the North Koreans.  China responded by sending in its army.  President Harry Truman decided that it was best not to antagonize the Chinese any more than necessary and prohibited  bombing supply bases in China.

Enemies using sanctuaries  isn't a new situation for the U.S.  Andrew Jackson faced such a situation  along the border of what was then Spanish owned Florida during the administration of President James Monroe.  Jackson took care of the problem by in effect declaring war on Spain with nothing more than an ambiguous letter from President Monroe. Jackson invaded Florida without any authorization from Congress and captured the Spanish governor at a poorly defended fort at Pensacola.  Spain after a protest decided Florida wasn't worth the trouble and ceded it to the U.S.

 During the Vietnam War communist forces started using areas  of Cambodia along the Vietnam border as sanctuaries for supply depots and troop bases.  Cambodia with a population of only 7 million and no military force to speak of couldn't force the Vietnamese out and was afraid that acknowledging their presence would draw the country into the war.  North Vietnam denied having any forces in Cambodia. 

The U.S. occasionally bombed these forces and sent in commando type forces, but denied doing either.  The U.S. didn't want to formally enter the country because it didn't want to  risk forcing Cambodia to ask for assistance from someone like China or the U.S.S.R.  Cambodia also ignored the actions of  the U.S. claiming it wasn't aware of the presense of foreign troops or any bombing. 

In early 1970 Prince Norodom Sihanouk's efforts to keep the country out of the conflict failed and he was overthrown in a coup by pro-U.S. officials.   The new government  invited the U.S. in to eliminate the communist bases.  Subsequently the country endured a civil war that resulted in over a million deaths.

Pakistan with an estimated 2006 population of 165 million is the 6th most populous nation in the world with a population equal to the population of Iraq plus the population of  Russia.  It has the world's 7th largest military force, including nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver them.   Pakistan's population is approximately equal to the combined populations of World War II Germany and Japan. 

Militants are a potential threat to overthrow or even take over the government.  They would welcome an incident  they could use to attract support for  a  Jihad type war. 

Al Qaeda may be using Pakistan as a sanctuary as part of a  strategy to create an incident to draw Pakistan into their Jihad.  Osama bin Laden  might welcome  being killed if he could  achieve martyr status  and induce Pakistan to declare war or to start supplying his forces with conventional or nuclear weapons. 

Pakistan has already had a problem with a government scientist helping other countries develop nuclear weapons without government approval.  Other government officials might respond to a U.S. incident by allowing militants to "steal" nuclear weapons.  If those militants could also "steal" a missile that could be fired from  a ship, they might be able to destroy a U.S. city.

The United States have enough to handle without having to take on a major military power like Pakistan.  Al Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan do increase the hazards of those serving in Afghanistan just like the Cambodian sanctuaries increased the  threat to those of us who served in Vietnam.  The rockets and mortars fired in my direction may have been stockpiled in Cambodia before being provided for attacks.  The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces where I was took their R & R in Cambodia.

However, the potential threat of a  much wider war makes the risk of attacking sanctuaries, or attempting to attack Osama bin Laden as Barack Obama wants to do,  too great to take the chance.  Pakistan isn't a weak nation like Cambodia or early 19th Century Spain. Pakistan has a stronger military force than China had during the Korean War.  Little Iraq ignored an ultimatum. Why would any intelligent person think Pakistan would take orders from the U.S.?

Sen. Joe Biden speaking to Democratic donors in Seattle has revealed a major secret that Sen. Barack Obama didn't want revealed.

Biden warned supporters that our enemies would very likely  test  Obama  within the first six months if he is elected president, much like Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev tested newly elected president John Kennedy.  Biden also warned that Obama might not handle it well.   Obama's "gonna need your help to use your influence within the community to stand with him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right."

For those unfamiliar with the Kennedy administration, Khrushchev decided he could take advantage of the young president because Kennedy appeared weak at a summit meeting and had mishandled an invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.  Khrushchev  responded by constructing the Berlin Wall and preparing to place missiles in Cuba.  Khrushchev eventually pulled the missiles out of Cuba after moving to the brink of nuclear war, but he got what he wanted with  a guarantee of a communist regime headed by  Fidel Castro in Cuba.  The Berlin Wall remained until 1989.

The pro-Obama New York Times attempted to minimize the significance of the remarks by quoting Obama's efforts at damage control.  

“A period of transition in a new administration is always one where we have to be vigilant, we have to be careful,” Mr. Obama said. “We have to be mindful that as we pass the baton in this democracy that others don’t take advantage of it - that’s true whether it’s myself or Senator McCain.”

One likely test of Obama would come from Osama bin Laden.  Obama said in the second debate:  "And if we have Osama bin Laden in our sights and the Pakistani government is unable or unwilling to take them out, then I think that we have to act and we will take them out."

If Obama is elected, bin Laden may  challenge  Obama by saying "here I am. Come and get me."  He will know Obama's statement saying he will order Pakistan to turn over bin Laden will prevent the Pakistani government from moving against him.

Obama doesn't understand that the government of the nation of 145 million people  will not give in to any  American ultimatum like it were some tiny Latin American country.  Pakistan has nuclear weapons and can easily destroy any attacking force.   Any Pakistani government foolish enough to appear to be taking orders from the U.S., which many Muslims refer to as "The Great Satan", would be overthrown by radicals.  Many of these radicals would be willing to take a chance on a nuclear war with the U.S. because they would not mind dying to further their "jihad" to help radical Islam take over the world.

If Obama were foolish enough to attack Pakistan by attacking bin Laden, Pakistan might feel it had no choice but to destroy the base that launched the attack or even declare war on the U.S.   Pakistan might even  secretly provide al Qaeda with one or more nuclear weapons.

If Obama backed down from his threat, bin Laden would portray it as a sign of weakness and  use it to increase  recruitment and plan for terror attacks against the U.S..  Bin Laden  might  also be able to use Obama's apparent weakness to increase recruitment for new operations in Iraq.

I wasted  another evening on Tuesday watching one of  the media events ignorant  journalists  insist on misrepresenting as debates.   The candidates repeated the same cliches they used in their first debate.

Once again Sen. Barack Obama demonstrated that he is dangerously ignorant in the area of  foreign policy and the War on Terror.  Once again journalists ignored his mistake. 

Obama. is apparently incapable of understanding the fact that sending military forces into another country without permission is an invasion.  It doesn't matter why the troops enter the country, it is still an act of war.   The fact that Osama bin Laden might be in Pakistan  doesn't mean the U.S. can invade Pakistan without fear of retaliation -- and  Pakistan most definitely does have nuclear weapons.

Obama doesn't understand the volatility of the situation in Pakistan.  The country has been on the brink of a civil war for many years and its government could fall at any time.  An American invasion would force the government to declare war on the U.S. to try to keep the country united.  The first action in that war might be a nuclear attack that would wipe out our forces in the Middle East.

Obama's obsession with bin Laden and Afghanistan indicates he doesn't understand the War on Terror.  This war isn't a traditional war against an enemy with a geographic base. 

Al  Qaeda can function without bin Laden and might even benefit if the United States killed or captured him.  Others are available to head al Qaeda  if something happens to bin Laden.

Death at the hands of the U.S. would make bin Laden a martyr and violent Muslims would rally to avenge his death.    Capture of bin Laden would provoke efforts to capture Americans any where in the world in an attempt to obtain hostages to trade for him.

Al Qaeda doesn't have a fixed location that  it has to defend.  If pushed out of one area, al  Qaeda will move to some other area with a large Muslem population.  If  the U.S. leaves Iraq before the Iraqis  are able to  maintain stablity in  the country, al Qaeda will move in and use Iraq as a base.

It is no longer important whether or not Iraq should have become a battleground in the War on Terror.  The fact is that Iraq is a battleground in the War on Terror and we cannot afford to turn that battleground over to al Qaeda.