Another Of Barry's Inbound Chickens?

In a strikingly bold speech about terrorism scheduled for this morning, Democratic presidential candidate Illinois Senator Barack Obama will call not only for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, but a redeployment of troops into Afghanistan and even Pakistan - with or without the permission of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.

"I understand that President Musharraf has his own challenges," Obama will say, according to speech excerpts provided to ABC News by his campaign, "but let me make this clear. 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 Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will." ...

That was thirteen months and sixteen days ago. Here was my timely and highly entertaining analysis. Here's the latest out of Pakistan - yesterday:

On the eve of a meeting with the top U.S. military commander, Pakistan upped the ante in its standoff over U.S. troop incursions, saying its soldiers had orders to open fire on American troops if they crossed from Afghanistan on raids…

A Pakistani military spokesman said Tuesday that the nation’s troops have been ordered to open fire if U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan launched another raid inside Pakistan, raising the prospect of a clash between Pakistani and U.S. forces on the border. Pakistani military officials have repeatedly emphasized that they consider such incursions — made permissible for U.S. troops by secret orders issued by U.S. President George W. Bush in July — to be a violation of territorial sovereignty.

“No incursion will be tolerated anymore,” said Major-General Athar Abbas, chief military spokesman. The prospect of allies fighting each other as they hunt down Islamist militants still appears remote, given the Pakistani government’s desire to receive billions of dollars in aid from the U.S. But the repeated warnings against U.S. troop raids reflect the strong anger felt among Pakistan’s senior ranks that the U.S. is overstepping its bounds with a close ally.

And if a clash or clashes do occur between U.S. and Pakistani forces? I would assume that's why JCS Chairman Mike Mullen is in Islamabad at this very moment. To remind the unserious regime of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani of just where his best interests lie. A talk that is long overdue, in my humble opinion.

Hopefully AP is right and General Abbas was just blustering for PR consumption. Otherwise the choices will be (1) keep raiding Pakistan and possibly push its government and nuclear arsenal into Islamist hands; or (2) let al Qaeda have its new base of operations and mark time until the resumption of their North American offensive.

Now aren't you just DYING to have Barack Obama making that decision? I KNEW you were!