AP: Obama Defends Foreign Policy Talk

[BeyondGeography]

LAS VEGAS - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday that rival Hillary Rodham Clinton was wrong when she said politicians shouldn't discuss hypothetical decisions on foreign policy.

Speaking at a conference of the National Association of Black Journalists, the Illinois senator defended his recent call for military action to hunt down terrorists if Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf doesn't act. Obama also said it would be "a profound mistake" to deploy nuclear weapons in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

..."She said, I don't I think we should talk about it. Well, I think we should talk about it. I think the American people ought to have a debate about our foreign policy because it's so messed up and if we don't talk about it we're going to end up repeating the same mistakes," Obama told an audience at a conference of the National Association of Black Journalists.

...Obama also defended his promise to open dialogue with dictators, another proposal that drew fire from his Democratic opponents. "But for me to have met with those individuals sends a message to the world that America is not so arrogant that we insist that you agree to everything we do before we even talk to you," he told the NABJ audience. "I'm not afraid to lose a propaganda battle with a bunch of dictators."

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/08/10/ap4010266.html