The Obama World Tour (Some Random Thoughts)

Obama Speech in Berlin, Germany
Thursday, July 24, 2008

Last week, Barack Obama toured Iraq and Afghanistan. He made a triumphant stop in Berlin and gave a speech before a huge crowd that makes one think of Dr. Martin Luther King's triumphant, "I Have A Dream" speech in Washington, DC. (Of course, I can only talk about the picture of that speech since I was only 4 or 5 years old when it actually happened.) The photo of Obama addressing all of those cheering German people should certainly have a lasting effect on anyone that witnessed it. Next, he went on to Israel and finished off with a customary stop in the U.K.

Obama has been gone for a week and while he was away, the McCain people have been criticizing him left and right. I have to laugh when I hear it but, they had the nerve to say that he has "abandoned America." This is a clear case of just saying something because it is expected of you. You don't really have anything to say but, if you don't say something, you become irrelevant.

Actually, Obama was trying to do what his critics, both Hillary Clinton and John McCain, have been bashing him with from day one and that is, get some experience in foreign policy. Well, you can only get experience if you go out and meet these foreign leaders, talk with them, hear their veiwpoints, and acclimate yourself with the current foreign policy of the day.

What foreign policy experience did the current president have when he took office? If we are to judge the way he's handled things so far, would anyone in their right mind say that he had a lot of experience? Under the current administration, the U.S. has managed to insult and lose the alliances of several NATO countries who had been our allies for years. Come on folks, lets be for real... none of those important countries want to talk to the U.S. right now. They are praying for a change in government, just like most of us.

I was still in the U.S. Air Force Reserves at the beginning of this decade and when I would go abroad to Europe, I would sit in the public houses and bistros and talk to the common people on the street. Contrary to what Fox News, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and others tell you, they don't hate the American people... they hate American policy as it stands now. The average citizen won't know this unless they bother to travel abroad to see and hear for themselves.

When I heard that Obama was going abroad, I welcomed it. Now, those people got the chance to see him, hear him and, most importantly, get to know him. Of course, I am guilty of doing what he has also been accused of this week... putting him in the White House before he gets there. After all, he is not the president yet.

Now, let me ask all of you something. Do you really think these world leaders want to talk to John McCain? (Nothing against the man personally, because unlike the present president, I do believe he has read a book or two and knows the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite Muslim.) It's not so much McCain but, what he represents... which is more of the same.