#14 Foreign Policy Part III

Obviously foreign policy is complex but in order to think clearly about how it informs my vote I narrowed my priorities to three things:

1. I want a president who can look beyond jingoism and see the complex layers and multiple consequences of war and occupation. Barak Obama demonstrated his insight and courage when he opposed the war in Iraq.

2. I want a president who understands real threats and is not afraid to take action. Senator Obama demonstrated his willingness to act decisively when, in 2007, he advocated going after terrorists on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

3. I want a president will have the respect and trust of the world. Barak Obama is the right symbol for our country to project to the world. In the past eight years our president has "talked the talk" of democracy, human rights and freedom but has led our country to act in ways that mock these ideals. Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, using third countries to torture our prisoners and dismissing habeas corpus are deeply disturbing to me and destructive to our moral authority. I am not ashamed to say that the prospect of an Obama presdiency does give me hope- hope that we can once again stand for freedom, fairness and dialogue with allies and adversaries that is respectful and intelligent. Obama represents generation and racial change that we need.

On June 5, 2008 in the Washington Post Kevin Phillips quoted Minoru Morita, a Tokyo political analyst. She said, " The primaries showed that the U.S. is actually the nation we had believed it to be, a place that is open-minded enough to have a woman or an African American as its president,"

Exactly!

In his June 11 NYT op-ed Thomas Friedman quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson who addressed the Mercantile Llibrary Association saying, "America is the country of the future. It is a country of beginnings, of projects, of vast designs and expectations.”

That is the American that excited the world. Obama's election will remind us and the world that we are a country that is not afraid of freedom, not afraid of honesty and that we have not forgotten how to couple strength with compassion and intelligence with convictions.