Palin Endorses Idea McCain Called "Naive"
Pressed three times by Charles Gibson of ABC News on whether the United States had the right to make cross-border attacks into Pakistan, "with or without the approval of the Pakistani government," Palin twice avoided the question before answering: "I believe that America has to exercise all options in order to stop the terrorists who are hell bent on destroying America and our allies. We have got to have all options out there on the table."
In August 2007, the now-Democratic nominee stirred controversy when he said that if he were elected president, he would be willing to attack inside Pakistan with or without approval from the Pakistani government. "If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will," Obama said.
Obama was referring to long-time U.S. ally Pervez Musharraf, who recently resigned.
The New York Times in Thursday's editions reported that President Bush secretly approved orders in July that would for the first time allow American Special Operations forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the prior approval of the Pakistani government. The newspaper said the classified order was directed against al Qaeda and Taliban forces.
But McCain, on several occasions, has attacked that idea as wrong-headed, most recently on July 28 on CNN's "Larry King Live."
King asked: "If you were president and knew that bin Laden was in Pakistan, you know where, would you have U.S. forces go in after him?"
McCain replied: "Larry, I'm not going to go there and here's why, because Pakistan is a sovereign nation. I think the Pakistanis would want bin Laden out of their hair and out of their country and it's causing great difficulties in Pakistan itself."
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