Barack Obama hits Hillary Clinton from an unexpected place -- the right. Obama has seen the poll numbers and he needs to make a strong statement about something... anything at this point. It could have been taxes, healthcare or some other red meat liberal issue, instead he talks tough militarily:

"Let me make this clear," Obama said in a speech prepared for delivery at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al-Qaida leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will."

Earth to Barack, do you have any idea what kind of blowback would be involved in that? Pakistan is jihadi central with more madrassas than any other country in the world. People who become radicalized go there for training to spread their vision of the caliphate far and wide, how much of a quagmire that would be is incomprehensible. They have lands there that are not governable and the Pakistani army will not touch. Anyone with an iota of military sense knows full-well that the 4,000 killed in four years in Iraq would be a monthly number in Pakistan.

Perhaps a few facts have slipped by Obama and his staff:

• Musharraf is in a shaky position and would be overthrown as soon as we crossed the border;
• Pakistan has a nuclear arsenal that could be shipped anywhere;
• Pakistan is an ally in the War on Terror, albeit one that is not as strong as we'd like; and finally
• Al-Jazeerah will take this and use it for propaganda purposes tonight and inflame those who we need in this ongoing battle. The irreparable harm done can not be measured.

This is pure desperation on Obama's part and one can feel that he knows that he has to make a splash. This was probably the wrong way to do it.

Let me be clear about one thing: If we had intel concerning the whereabouts of Zawahiri or Osama bin Laden, I would be all for a quick strike in which we get in, get out and deny the whole thing so as not to arouse the Pakistani population. For all I know, we may have pulled raids such as that off. I am not for a full-scale invasion.

Join us next week as we dissect Barack Obama's plans to invade the holy city of Mecca.

Update (8/1/07 1400): The comments below made me think of something I omitted. Are those who support Obama in what he said going to support President Bush if he invade Pakistan tomorrow based on intel showing where bin-Laden is? Would they feel the same if bin-Laden were shown to be in Iran? Ask yourself those questions Obama supporters.

Update 2: OK, just to make it easy, here's the money quote (I generally prefer for people to click through to the link so they get the gist of the entire piece):

Obama said that as commander in chief he would remove troops from Iraq and putting them "on the right battlefield in Afghanistan and Pakistan." He said he would send at least two more brigades to Afghanistan and increase nonmilitary aid to the country by $1 billion.