President Obama is having his press conference today. The questions will likely be all about the stimulus program.
But there are a number of foreign policy issues that concern. I would really like if someone would ask him these foreign policy questions
Afghan President Karzai has claimed that a recent bombing killed 15 civilians. Have you investigated his claim and can you make a conclusion?
For your new strategy on Afghanistan, will you work to significantly reduce the use of bombings?
That bombing made the news during Obama's first week. But I don't think anyone has actually confronted Obama about it. I want him to personally make some comment about the possibility of civilian deaths in this action. So many civilians lives have been lost in the GWB administration's reliance on bombings. I supported Obama's new commitment to fighting the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, with the understanding that new strategies would stop these huge losses of life. Let's have him say something about the bombing policy.
There have been recent news articles speculating that Karzai is out of favor with your administration, and that you were considering replacements in a meeting with potential Presidential candidates. Are you concerned that your behavior gives the impression that you will decide who will be the next President of Afghanistan, not the voters in the August election?
That's the impression I've been getting from blogs like E Ariana, that Obama is trying to select the next Afghan president. If Afghanistan is a democracy, it's the Afghan public that's supposed to choose Karzai or someone else in August. Obama needs to be confronted with this appearance that he's trying to supercede Afghan voters on the choice.
Tomorrow is Election Day in Israel. Do you have any comment on the apparent swing to the right in Israeli politics. In particular, Avignor Lieberman of Ysraeli Beiteinu has advocated policies such as forcing Arab Israeli citizens to sign loyalty oaths or be expulled. How would your administration react to such a policy?
I don't think the Israel election has gotten the attention it deserves. Lieberman frightens me. The Obama administration for now appears to be following the default position of rubber stamping all Israeli policies. Obama must face the possibility that he might then be rubberstamping Lieberman's fascism. Lieberman could be the greatest threat yet to Middle East peace.
How much time do you dedicate every day to foreign policy, what with our current economic crisis?
All this talk about the stimulus package, I really had been wondering how much foreign policy work Obama's been able to do. Could it be that he's ignoring foreign policy altogether, leaving that up to Hillary, Biden and Gates? I would then worry that this hands off approach is leading to a foreign policy comparably beligerent to the GWB administration's foreign policy.