Where Are the Obama Anti-War Protests?

Obama is taking a firm stand on counter-terror policies in South Asia, as evidenced by U.S. military operations against terrorist sanctuaries in the Pakistani hinterland.

Here's the Washington Post's article, "2 U.S. Airstrikes Offer a Concrete Sign of Obama's Pakistan Policy":

Two remote U.S. missile strikes that killed at least 20 people at suspected terrorist hideouts in northwestern Pakistan yesterday offered the first tangible sign of President Obama's commitment to sustained military pressure on the terrorist groups there, even though Pakistanis broadly oppose such unilateral U.S. actions.

The shaky Pakistani government of Asif Ali Zardari has expressed hopes for warm relations with Obama, but members of Obama's new national security team have already telegraphed their intention to make firmer demands of Islamabad than the Bush administration, and to back up those demands with a threatened curtailment of the plentiful military aid that has been at the heart of U.S.-Pakistani ties for the past three decades.

The separate strikes on two compounds, coming three hours apart and involving five missiles fired from Afghanistan-based Predator drone aircraft, were the first high-profile hostile military actions taken under Obama's four-day-old presidency. A Pakistani security official said in Islamabad that the strikes appeared to have killed at least 10 insurgents, including five foreign nationals and possibly even "a high-value target" such as a senior al-Qaeda or Taliban official.

It remained unclear yesterday whether Obama personally authorized the strike or was involved in its final planning, but military officials have previously said the White House is routinely briefed about such attacks in advance.

Readers of this blog know that I called for exactly this response in November and December after terrorists laid siege to Mumbai. I'd actually like to see cross-border commando raids as well, but there's hope.

Now, anyone even remotely familiar with U.S. military command and control knows that U.S. airstrikes cannot proceed without approval from the top. But that doesn't stop antiwar airheads from blaming the loss of "innocents" and "children" on the Bush administration:

The airstrikes were part of a program begun by the Bush administration and authorized to continue by President Obama, but he himself does not personally authorize each strike.

It does no good to blame Bush at this point. Obama could stop the drone attacks at a moment's notice. For all the tortured reasoning from the left, the Obama administration has no choice but to play hardball with hard military power against the foes of America and the West. The U.S. raids will send the possible signal of U.S. posture and intentions. The Obama adminisration is letting it be known to hostile audiences worldwide that American policy will display continuity and even escalation of pressure in the face of radicals who are committing acts of violent mayhem around the world.

So where are the Obama administration antiwar protests? As we can see, those on the left so far will only blame Bush - they're irked that Obama's "continuning Bush's policy" of military force.

World Can't Wait has decided they'll protest the "evil BushCo":

... when such promises of continued wars of terror are being made it is a time to continue the resistance that is needed in the face of this. And a group of activists who recognized this moment gathered at D.C.’s Union Station and brought into sharp focus the disconnect between what the people of this country and the world hope for and what Obama has promised. For a solid hour a dramatic action was led by World Can’t Wait and joined by members from Arrest Bush, and Code Pink ...

Yeah, Code Pink, the folks who received tickets to the inauguration from the inside Democratic connections in Congress. World Can't Wait has said they're going to "stand up to this" no matter who the president is, but there's no announcement of planned protests at the page.

There's no mention of Obama at After Downing Street either, amid all the ads for t-shirts and posters exhorting folks to "Arrest Bush and Cheney."

And ANSWER's got an announcement up for a "Palestine Public Forum & Teach-In" in Los Angeles, where activists can learn "the real aims" behind the media's lies on "The U.S./Israeli War on Gaza." And the group's national page features a poster promoting a "March on the Pentagon" to end the "occupation" of Afghanistan and Iraq that features President Bush's mug - in March 2009! By God, Bush will have been gone for two whole months, and they'll still throwing shoes at the vile "BusHitler"!

The hypocrisy is exquiste, but consistent of the hard left, in any case.