US President-elect Barack Obama (1961- )
US President-elect Barack Obama moved to Washington from Chicago in the run-up to his swearing-in ceremony on 20 January. Media outlets across the United States are speculating in detail on Mr Obama’s move to Washington and the preparations for his inauguration. Many observers note that the president-elect, who has read much about Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and John Kennedy, might steer the country out of the present severe financial and economic crisis to a better life. There are hopes that Washington’s foreign policy, which ruined the image of America abroad, might change, too. In an appearance on NBC television on Sunday, Democratic Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Majority Leader of the US Senate, named George Bush as the worst president in the history of the USA.
The so-called “achievements” of Mr Bush’s domestic policy are well-known, and have caused nothing but suffering in the world. His lapses on the international scene are as impressive. Israel’s military operation in Gaza, in which at least 500 civilians have been killed, strikes a powerful final chord in a rapidly-deteriorating US foreign policy. Even casual observers can see that this operation is carried out with the full blessing of the White House. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have fallen victim in the US campaign to plant an American-style democracy in Iraq, and terror and violence continue unabated. Sources in President Bush’s entourage acknowledge that NATO is going from bad to worse in Afghanistan. No wonder, then, according to surveys held in different countries of the globe, especially in the Muslim world, the USA is named the number-one threat to world peace. In many respects, Washington managed to thoroughly spoil its relations with many NATO allies and with countries in Latin America.
It is no secret that many regard the White House’s one-sided, often-hostile, policies towards Russia as echoes of the period of the Cold War. The US unilaterally withdrew from the 1972 ABM Treaty, and NATO’s expansion to the Russian borders goes at full tilt, despite protests from Moscow. The United States is building missile defence bases in Poland and the Czech Republic, arrogantly brushing aside Russian counter-offers, and strategic arms reduction is deadlocked as a result of Washington’s actions. To mend broken fences, Barack Obama will have to shake off George Bush’s burdensome legacy, which is not-so-easy. But, Russia, as President Medvedev said repeatedly, is ready to extend a helping hand to the US for equal, beneficial, and constructive cooperation in all areas of mutual interest.
5 January 2009
Viktor Yenikeyev
Voice of Russia World Service
http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=96506&cid=19&p=05.01.2009 (in Russian)
Editor’s Note:
Shall the USA shake off the hubris and arrogance of the Bush/Clinton neocon era? Only time shall tell us. One thing is certain, though. There shall be no money for any further foreign adventures or to prop up the neo-Nazi anti-Russian juntas in the Near Abroad. America must abandon neoliberal economic ideas, neoconservative political theories, and therapeutic nihilism as an ideology in order to rise above the current crisis, which is one of the spirit more than it is one of the treasury. Shall Obama have the guts to do so? Again, only time shall tell us…
