"Now he must declare that the war on terror is over"

[bronnyelsp]

If the most important single thing that Obama should do quickly is to announce the immediate closure of Guantánamo Bay, the corollary has to be a declaration that the war on terror is over. Accept that terrorism is a technique. It is not an ideology. The west faces no global enemy, no worldwide Islamofascist conspiracy. Foreign crises should be

Comments

[voxsjournal]

But I have faith that steadily, as the next four years progress, the evil work of the Bush administration will be gradually undone, bit by bit, piece by careful piece.

Honestly? I think it's the same as what a lot of people (including me, back in the day) felt about Bill Clinton. People forget that we'd just gone through 12 long years of Reagan/Bush. Clinton "kept hope alive." It was all about hope. And change. It was all about change. Heck, Bill Clinton even promised, in 1992, to end the tax breaks for corporations that move jobs overseas. Sixteen years later, Obama is making the same promise. I just don't believe them anymore. I'd love to see it happen, but I won't believe it until the bill is signed.

Obama promised to filibuster any bill that gave amnesty to the phone companies involved in illegal wiretapping. Not only didn't he do that, he ended up voting FOR the FISA bill. You can see why I don't have much hope, right?

And his foreign policy looks like all the other presidents'.

I'd love to see Obama stop funding the NED and the CIA and USAID. I'd love to see him discontinue destabilizing democracies in the interest of corporate power. I just don't expect him to. Nothing in his resume indicates that he has any interest in that.

I know all about hope. I really believed in '92. By the time '96 came around, I voted for Clinton because he promised to undo the worst excesses of the welfare "reform" act. He didn't. By 2000 I was a socialist. Yes, that's right. Bill Clinton made me a Marxist. It's all his fault.

I just hope that you keep your eyes on Obama for the next four years.

[bronnyelsp]

As I say, I was critical for the last few of years of the Clinton administration too (before that I was a bit too young to say more than, "Duh, Canada's better than America!" -- I was 20 when Bush was first elected). No, I don't agree with American foreign policy meddling in other nations' affairs, and I speak with authority as a Canadian. Anything we do that's to the left of the States, if it's new or in any way controversial, we literally get scolded like schoolchildren by Big Brother Sam. How DARE you trade with Cuba? How DARE you decriminalise marijuana in select circumstances? How DARE you set up a safe injection site in Vancouver's downtown eastside? How DARE you not go to war in Iraq with us? This will all have serious trade ramifications, you know. Bad, bad America Junior. Stop rebelling.

But I see a marked difference between Clinton and Bush. If Obama even brings the States back to where it was under Clinton -- undoes what Bush has done -- that's progress. I don't know if I have too much hope he'll go further, but given how much I LOATHED the Bush administration and all it stood for, that in itself is enough to make me teary-eyed and dancing with glee. But I do see Obama as more visionary than any politician in a long time. And I do see a marked difference between his policy on Iraq's and Bush's. I'm not going to go over AGAIN what that difference is, but to me, it's there. Under Obama, I seriously believe that America is ready to rejoin the community of nations as a member thereof, without always attempting to be it's self-appointed leader, and to me, as a Canadian, as a Brit, that is a HUGE deal.