Hillary has said make aid conditional, still giving Musharaff military aid, while Obama is trying to weaken Musharaff militarily and force him to make clean elections. Obama is calling for a "suspension" of military aid.
Obama: U.S. needs to come down hard on MusharrafDecember 28, 2007
BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Political Reporter
WILLIAMSBURG, Iowa -- A day after former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, White House hopeful
Barack Obama said the United States needs to come down hard on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.
Obama said today he would suspend any military aid to Pakistan not directly going to fight al Qaida until Musharraf gets “serious” about stomping out the group.
“We have poured billions of dollars in support to President Musharraf,” Obama told hundreds of supporters who braved a snowstorm to hear him at the Mary Welsh Elementary School. “This despite the fact that he has suspended democratic practices in Pakistan. He has not obeyed the constitution. He has put the chief justice there under house arrest, still has political prisoners and the press is suppressed. As we’re supposed to be leading up to elections.”Obama and most of the other Democratic and Republican presidential candidates are scrambling around Iowa amid heavy snowfall today with just days to go before next week’s caucuses.
“As long as we are supporting somebody who the Pakistani people themselves believe has subverted democracy, that strengthens the hand of the Islamic militants,” Obama told the crowd.Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, made a similar plea to cut foreign aid to Pakistan and has even called on President Bush to ask Musharraf to step down.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/717203,obama122807.article Here is what Hillary just told CNN on military aid to Pakistan from here on out:
I think we do need to condition aid. I would do it differently. I would say, look, we want to know very specifically what accountability you’re going to offer to us for the military aid that we believe should be going in the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
...
I have found that President Musharraf is someone that needs, in my opinion, to have a very consistent message and then frankly the help that would come with helping him and those who are in leadership positions understanding that this is not just about the United States - obviously, we have a very important national security interest. This is about what happens to Pakistan.
President Musharraf could become as important to the future of Pakistan if he changed course and began to act in a way that would create more confidence to have these free and fair elections, to restore an independent judiciary, to take the shackles off the press, to say that he trusted the Pakistani people. That’s what I’m hoping will happen over the next weeks.
What Hil doesn't understand and Obama does is that Musharaff is beyond redemption, that he is just a puppet anyway, we need to move on and act differently from now on. Aiding Musharaff militarily just keeps the moderates from taking back the power he took from them in '98.
By the way, Obama was calling for this cutoff in military aid to Musharaff BEFORE the assassination of Bhutto. That is important to point out.