Candidates On Fighting Islamic Extremism

CBS Evening News: How Proposals By McCain And Obama Would Affect The World

(CBS)  To help you make an informed decision in the presidential election, CBS News is devoting a large part of our broadcasts until Nov. 4 to telling you where the candidates stand on major issues - from the war in Iraq to health insurance to education … and a lot more. Each piece will be an in-depth look at the issues facing the 44th president. In this installment, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports on how what Barack Obama and John McCain propose to do about Islamic extremism would affect the world.

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The Issue

The driver of an orange-and-white car shown in a video tape is a suicide bomber. He just barely misses an American convoy. The threat of Islamic extremists on the battlefield is so deadly, the only way to win is to shoot first.

But to Greg Mortenson, the real battleground is in the Hindu Kush, where Muslim children have no schools. For him, a classroom is the best weapon against terrorists.

"I think they fear education and literacy much more than they fear a good gun battle," Mortenson said.

Since 1993, Mortenson has been building schools in mountains so dangerous you take your life in your hands just crossing a river.

"Fifteen years later, now we have 78 schools, about 28,000 students and our primary focus is on girls' education," he said.

He is competing against religious schools called madrassas, teaching jihad to young boys who graduate to terrorist training camps. And his 78 schools are badly outgunned.

"Today, there's about 25,000 extremist madrassas with about four million mostly boys going to school, learning about militant ideology," he said.

"Doesn't sound like a fair contest," Martin said.

"It's just a drop in the bucket," Mortenson said.

A drop in the bucket against a fanatic ideology that, for a decade now, has spawned monstrous attacks on Americans.

The Candidates

There is no more visceral issue than the battle against Islamic extremism. And from the beginning, both candidates have put it at the center of their appeal to voters.

For both men, it begins with hunting down Osama bin Laden and other top terrorists - wherever they are.

"We cannot tolerate a terrorist sanctuary, and as president, I will not," Sen. Barack Obama said in May. "We must make it clear that if Pakistan cannot or will not act, we will take out high-level terrorist targets like bin Laden if we have them in our sights."

Obama makes no bones about it - if he gets a shot at bin Laden, he will take it - with or without Pakistani permission.

Sen. John McCain says it’s a mistake to be so explicit about violating another country's territory, but leaves little doubt he would do exactly the same.

"There's a guy out there in Afghanistan or Pakistan," McCain said in March. "You know his name: Osama bin Laden. And if I have to follow him to the gates of hell, I'll get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice."

The battle against bin Laden and Islamic extremism began in Afghanistan. Seven years later, the United States has 32,000 troops there, and it is still not clear which side is winning.

"Our commanders on the ground in Afghanistan say that they need at least three additional brigades - and our commanders in Afghanistan must get them," McCain said.

Both candidates say they would send in more troops.

"As Commander in Chief, I will have no greater priority than taking out these terrorists that threaten America, and finishing the job against the Taliban. That's why I've called for at least two additional U.S. combat brigades," Obama said.

The U.S. military is already planning to send four more combat brigades - about 15,000 troops - and both candidates seem likely to approve. Both also recognize that's not enough. It will take what's called "soft power."

Obama wants to give Pakistan $7 million to build schools, roads and health clinics. McCain also supports non-military aid, but has put no price tag on it.

In Los Angeles, McCain said: "Our goal must be to win the hearts and minds of the vast majority of moderate Muslims who do not want their future controlled by a minority of violent extremists. In this struggle, scholarships will be far more important than smart bombs."

The Impact

Since 9/11, the Pentagon has spent $160 billion fighting the war in Afghanistan, compared to thet $12 billion for the soft power of diplomacy and aid.

Greg Mortenson says money invested in soft power goes a lot farther.

"A Tomohawk cruise missile costs about $840,000. And for the comparable money we could build about 25 schools, and over 20 years educate about 30,000 students," he said.

It sounds simple, but Americans aren't allowed in areas where Islamic extremists are strongest.

"I was kidnapped for eight days in Waziristan by the Taliban," Mortenson said.

Martin asked: "What did you see when you looked the Taliban in the eye?"

"I see ignorance. I think ignorance breeds hatred," he said.

Muslim children are literally begging for education.

"If you please, build for us a school," one young girl said in Pashtu, with a translator.

Each candidate would no doubt like to start his term as commander in chief by hunting down bin Laden, but the battle against Islamic extremism won't end there.

ml1888 -- these claims that Obama has no accomplishments are rubbish. Obama has introduced or co-sponsored almost 1400 bills as a State and US Senator. Almost 600 of them in the US Senate. They include: with Republican with Chuck Hagel, a provision to secure vulnerable nuclear weapons and nuclear material around the world, protecting them from terrorists -- the Obama/Feingold 2007 Ethics Reform Law, which curbed lobbying abuses, perhaps the most sweeping ethics reform since Watergate -- Obama wrote the legislation for his Homes for Heroes Act and SAVE Act, that increased services for homeless veterans. He went against his own party to sponsor an amendment that required lobbyist disclosures. Get the facts. As a state senator he represented a district with as many people as the State of Alaska, and Illinois has 13 million people. Obama has a lot of experience and an analytic and intelligent way of looking at things. You can disagree with the man, but don''t make stuff up...

[onarollagain]

Obama campaigned for the opposition candidate in Kenya whose name is Odinga...this man then caused genocide and ethnic cleansing to occur when he lost the election. He also signed an agreement with the Muslim community in which he promised not to turn over terrorists. This is documented by all the mainstream media when it happened but now there is no mention of it. Character does matter and Barrack''s friends are no friends of the United States of America.

[misha128-2009]

Posted by ml1888 at 03:15 PM

Please explain why we should support continuation the Bush War on Terr''a as advocated by Senator McCain. That policy has allowed Al Qaeda that attacked us to expand from a hand full of countries before 9/11 to between 60 and 100 now depending on the source of the information. Their strength now exceeds their strength on 9/11. After almost 7 years of war, Al Qaeda is stronger today and occupying more countries that before 9/11. How can that be considered anything other than failure to contain Al Qaeda?

[sbelknap01]

Both candidates seem to agree that education is the solution to religious extremism, of all sorts - and they are correct. One of the reasons we are seeing an upturn in Christian extremism in this country is lack of education. Most of our domestic problems, including high abortion numbers, can be traced to ignorance. (College grads aren''t exactly filling those clinics). I suggest you pick your candidate based on his commitment to education to see a real victory over extremism.

[ml1888]

Jack Wheeler is a brilliant man who was the author of Reagan''s strategy to break the back of the Soviet Union with the starwars race and expose their inner weakness. He is a true patriot with a no-nonsense approach to everything. He is also a somewhat well-known mountain climber and adventurer.
Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler
Barack Hussein Obama is an eloquently tailored empty suit. No resume, no accomplishments, no experience, no original ideas, no understanding of how the economy works, no understanding of how the world works, nothing but abstract, empty rhetoric devoid of real substance.
He has no real identity. He is half-white, which he rejects. The rest of him is mostly Arab, which he hides, but is disclosed by his non-African Arabic surname and his Arabic first and middle names as a way to triply proclaim his Arabic parentage to people in Kenya . He hasn''t a single ancestor who was a slave. Instead, his Arab ancestors were slave owners. Slave-trading was the main Arab business in East Africa for centuries until the British ended it.
It''s something Hillary doesn''t understand - how some complete neophyte came out of the blue and stole the Dem nomination from her. Obamamania is beyond politics and reason. arguments Hillary (or McCain) Thank heavens that the voting majority of Americans remain Christian and are in no desperate need of a phony savior.
His candidacy is ridiculous and should not be taken seriously by any thinking American

[misha128-2009]

Posted by blondegenes at 12:44 PM

In terms of Acorn -- perhaps you should research the cooperation between Acorn and authorities to deal with those submitting bogus applications and the flagging of bogus applications to election board workers for completed forms that are REQUIRED TO BE SUBMITTED BY MANY STATE laws to prevent voter suppression. The same voter suppression practices Mr Sprouls, a paid Republican operative past and present has been investigated for repeatedly.

Then we have the recent California arrest of the President of YPM, a Republican paid company for voter registration, for what you ask? For trying to register himself to vote twice in the California. Not to mention the numerous witnesses that have publicly accused his company and operatives of fraudulently changing voter registrations and fraudulently requesting absentee ballots.

[misha128-2009]

Posted by blondegenes at 12:44 PM

Repetition of Republican lies to continue the failed Bush Policies -- the same policies Senator McCain is attempting to claim he refutes in the last 13 days of the campaign as he threw the policies and President Bush under the bus yesterday. There are no lies or half-truths that McCain will not say in order to be elected president. The proof is simple -- despite the new campaign rhetoric -- he has not announced a single policy change from before his johnny-come-lately refutation of Bush and "his" policies still advocated as McCain''s policies even today.

[misha128-2009]

Please explain why we should support continuation the Bush War on Terr''a as advocated by Senator McCain. That policy has allowed Al Qaeda that attacked us to expand from a hand full of countries before 9/11 to between 60 and 100 now depending on the source of the information. Their strength now exceeds their strength on 9/11. After almost 7 years of war, Al Qaeda is stronger today and occupying more countries that before 9/11. How can that be considered anything other than failure to contain Al Qaeda?

[blondegenes]

Oh, and, lest I forget,,,
Obama not only wants to take the hard earned dollars of taxpayers, and "spread the wealth" to the lower classes,,,he had a plan to tax you and "spread the wealth" to other nations against your wishes!
Obama%u2019s %u201CGlobal Poverty Act%u201D (S.2433)
http://www.nationalledger.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=22&num=18845

"Another program modeled on Nunn-Lugar, the Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention (IPP), was recently exposed as HAVING FUNDED NUCLEAR PROECTS in Iran through Russia.

More foreign aid through passage of the Global Poverty Act was identified as one of the strategic goals of InterAction, the alliance of U.S-based international non-governmental organizations that lobbies for more foreign aid. The group is heavily financed by the U.S. Government, having received $1.4 million from taxpayers in fiscal year 2005 and $1.7 million in 2006. However, InterAction recently issued a report accusing the United States of %u201Cfalling short on its commitment to rid the world of dire poverty by 2015 under the U.N. Millennium Development Goals%u2026%u201D"

It''s the equivalent of the ACORN scandal on a nuclear, global scale.
You can tell when Obama''s lying, his lips are moving.

[misha128-2009]

Posted by LDVUONG at 10:59 AM

The tax proposals of Senator Obama are in the great tradition of the United States practiced by both parties since the 16th amendment authorized the collection of the income tax as economic motivators. Do you wonder about McCain''s plan and how radical it is since he considers these standard tried and true US income tax practices to be socialist?