Democratic White House contender Barack Obama said on Friday he would launch military strikes on extremist targets inside Pakistan if Islamabad is unwilling or unable to act. At their first presidential debate, Obama's Republican opponent John McCain said such threats were unhelpful. "You don't say that out loud," he said. But Obama insisted.
"If the United States has al Qaeda, (Osama) bin Laden, top-level lieutenants in our sights, and Pakistan is unwilling or unable to act, then we should take them out." McCain countered by calling for a "new strategy" against al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
"We're going to have to help the Pakistanis go into these areas and obtain the allegiance of the people. It's going to be tough," said the Arizona senator. Obama repeated his favoured strategy for Afghanistan: to take US troops from Iraq and send them to Afghanistan to better deal with a reconstituted al Qaeda.
"Al Qaeda and Taliban (are) crossing the border and attacking our troops in a brazen fashion. They are feeling emboldened," he said. "We cannot separate Afghanistan from Iraq because what our commanders have said is we don't have the troops right now to deal with Afghanistan."