Move America Forward recently formed a political-action committee to hit Barack Obama on military issues, and had an explosive charge handed to it by Amir Taheri’s New York Post column on Monday. Taheri quoted Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari in accusing Obama of attempting to block the negotiations between the US and Iraq on a status-of-forces agreement (SOFA), which Obama’s campaign verified in its response yesterday. MAFPAC has its first issue, and its first ad will hit the airwaves this week:
I think this takes the wrong tack, and does harm to MAF’s overall message. With the success of the surge, Iraq has become a lot less dangerous, a point that Obama had refused to acknowledge until after the conventions, when even Obama realized it made him sound like an idiot. Nor would a delay in the SOFA mean a delay in pulling troops out of Iraq; the US can decide to withdraw them with or without a SOFA. This was Taheri’s overreach, and MAF should have avoided it.
The problem with what Obama did is twofold. First, Senator Obama has no authority to negotiate on behalf of the executive branch, which has sole authority to conduct foreign policy. Second and most important, Obama attempted to interfere against the interests of the United States. He can ask all the questions he wants, but when Obama started pressing Iraqi officials to stop negotiations with the executive branch — in other words, break one level of diplomatic contact and freeze a military alliance in time of war — that crossed a line and clearly violated the Logan Act. It also makes clear that Obama would do anything to get elected, even harm diplomatic relations between the US and an ally.
Even with the less-effective approach, though, the ad will at least put the issue in front of the American people. So far, the mainstream media seems more interested in Sarah Palin’s tanning bed than in a presidential candidate who tried to undermine US interests in a war zone for the sake of his own political career.
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