(PTI) Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has supported the cross-border raids by US forces into Pakistan but described them as "baby steps" by the Bush administration in the right direction. "Senator Obama has been saying for well over a year, in fact, has been saying frankly since before the invasion of Iraq that the central front in the war on terror is Afghanistan and Pakistan. And we need to invest there," Susan Rice, the top foreign policy adviser to Senator Obama, said."The Bush administration has come to that point of view. That's the kind of policy we have to pursue and continue, ...This is a baby step, but it's a baby step in the right direction and something that John McCain hasn't been willing to acknowledge," she said.
Senior officials of the administration have parried queries on attacks by American forces inside Pakistan that are supposedly signed by the President himself.
Rice said that President Bush and the administration was doing what Senator Obama believed in, saying invading Pakistan did not mean hurting the country's sovereignty but should be viewed as an act of self-defence.
"President Bush and the administration, indeed, are doing what Senator Obama said we must, well over a year ago. If we have actionable intelligence about a high-value terrorist target inside Pakistan and Pakistan is unwilling or unable to take that target out, such as Osama bin Laden, Senator Obama's view is we should act.
"Not to invade. Not to take over Pakistan's sovereignty, but to take out that target as an act of self-defence," Rice said.