Really Pissed Off!

The votes have been cast and Sen. Barack Obama is now the President-Elect of the United States. How you anticipate his Presidency depends upon how you voted on November 4th. The matter discussed here is how an Obama Presidency appears in the eyes of the rest of the World. Over the past eight years, The United States displayed what could be called Imperial Democracy to an unbelieving world and has lost much of the admiration of a World that had at one time respected us. It took the Bush Administration a few short months to shatter the image of America, as it bullied its way through the Middle East and other regions of the world. One of the many difficult jobs ahead for an Obama Administration is to rescue what is left of our reputation, and rejoin the rest of the World. They are waiting anxiously for us to do so!

After wining “The Cold War” with the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, The United States remained the lone “Super Power,” with no one to challenge it. It was the first time since 1941 when the U.S. was not facing a formidable enemy. Our first reaction was to “take a rest” as the Clinton Administration chose a “better late than never” policy in the 1990s, especially in the Balkan conflict in Bosnia. We began to cut back on our intelligence, spending for national defense and appeared to be lulled into a malaise. We allowed the Taliban to come to power in Afghanistan, as once we lured the Soviet Union into their “Vietnam,” we forgot about it. It wasn’t until the War in Kosovo that the United States began to act as a world leader. During the same years, the Neo-Conservatives had their own agenda, going back to the 1990s, and that was to spread “democracy” anywhere it could, especially the Middle East. We witness and continue to suffer under this doctrine with the War in Iraq. With our unilateral decision making for world order, we really have pissed off the rest of the world!

The votes on November 4th had hardly been counted when the world press began to publish their hope for a new America under an Obama Presidency. Leaders throughout the World heralded a new era of American Foreign Policy, one which America will rejoin the rest of the nations of the World in international affairs. Within moments of his victory, Germany’s “Spiegal” headlined ”America Has Redicovered its Political Calling” and in another article stated that Obama’s election was ”An Offer of Reconciliation to the World” “Al Jazeera” proclaimed ”A new dawn of American leadership is at hand.” In Russa, “Pravda” proclaimed that “”Eight years of Hell are over” and that ”in choosing Obama, the people of America have opted to come back into the international fold. Welcome back, friends!” Obama’s victory in Romania was heralded in ”in hoping that US=Romania alliance will strengthen further” in “BalkinInsignt.” In Israel, there was concern as the “DEBKAfile” reported that Obama’s support for a new Middle East policy “based on drawing Damascus out of its alliance with Iran, Israel could find itself on a collision course with "a potential Obama presidency.” The exact course of American Foreign Policy is still unclear at this time, but Barack Obama’s initial statement on his website is the he “will continue the long American tradition of smart diplomacy to keep the country safe while improving America’s standing in the world.” That would indicate that America is again to rejoin the rest of the world and leave behind unilateral Imperial Democracy. America has been the beacon of light for the rest of the World in the second half of the 20th Century. That light was eclipsed by the Bush Administration’s Foreign Policy. It’s time again to resume our unique position and lead into the 21st Century!

World celebrates the Obama victory!