15 January 2008
Are voters considering how important foreign-policy experience is in their candidates? A bright new face with vows of change is not enough to get my vote. The next leader of our country needs to be tough and savvy to be able to start repairing the damage the Bush administration caused with our Allies around the world and to bring new ones into the fold. Dealing with China, Russia and Iran are a few countries that come to mind which will need the best negotiators that the next president can assemble. Building trust for the U.S. is another important factor as the Iraq war has caused chaos in the Middle East. Will China or Russia overtake the U.S. in world leadership? Let’s not ever go there.
The next president will face a geopolitical shift which has taken place since the Cold War’s end. We are not in a great position to recover our diminished American authority. For this reason we are going to need a great leader. Where and who is that guy or gal? I really don’t see such a person waiting in the wings to jump in at the last second. It seems that we will be forced to choose from the group that is being offered and I, for one, am having a tough time seeing someone who can live up to my expectations. Have I set my sights too high?
Can the U.S. remain the most important force shaping global affairs and providing order. The next president will be facing changes of the global kind. He or she will have to be more diligent to protect our interests, and more creative working with enfeebled global institutions. As much as I hate to think of it, we will need to be much stronger in Afghanistan, a place we should have stayed in the first place and not let the Bush administration change the course in the wrong direction. But that is in the past and it is the future that we must deal with now. So many problems and so few good choices for new leadership. This will truly be a history making election because of its daunting challenges.
I am reaching the end of my life but I’m concerned for my children and their children. What kind of world will they face. Will nuclear war come into the picture? I try very hard to remain upbeat but there are so many frightening things to consider that it is sometimes difficult for me to “think positive”.
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