A Brave New World

In the summer of 2009 President Obama will make state visits to Middle East countries Saudi Arabia and Egypt. He will also make his first sub-Saharan African trip to the nation of Ghana. These trips will continue the efforts of the President to step out on the World Scene to refurbish the image of the United States. Needless to say President Obama's predecessor did him no favors in raising the nation's profile and image. It is with that burden that the current President takes the world stage. Fortunately he has well-wishers among some of the previous administration's harshest critics. However, in order to really revamp the way the United States is viewed and treated in the world the President should seek to engage in policy that supports his good spirits.

Obviously there needs to be a change in Iraqi policy. So far President Obama has said what appears to be all the right things. He has talked about drawing down the number of active combat troops on the ground in Iraq. He has also intensely laid out the strategy for shifting the nature of the work in Iraq from active combat to military training. The only bad part about that is former President Bush made the same claims. Unfortunately those ideas never took shape the way any of the American people would have wanted them to and they are understandably wary of that same talk.

If President Obama does change the face of the United States on the world scene he must also address the military's unacceptable behavior. Some mainstream media outlets have addressed this but only in the vein of discussing torture. That issue is something the current administration must address and rectify. Beyond that, the Obama administration has the daunting task of tightening up attack procedures in the Middle East. Countless numbers of civilians have been harmed or killed in United States military attacks. This was something that was prevalent in Iraq and now that the nation has supposedly turned its attention to Afghanistan it is happening there as well.

The United States can not ask to be looked to as a moral authority and continue to hurt innocent civilians. Some supporters of the attacks in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan argue that the civilians are collateral damage and that the by and large number of victims are Taliban or insurgent fighters. This contradicts much of what those countries governments are releasing as official reports. The Afghani government claimed one attack to have killed over 140 civilians. The United States puts that number somewhere around 20 or 30. The fact remains that if President Obama is going to chart a new path for United States foreign policy he needs to repudiate any civilian death at the hands of the United States military.


The mere election of Mr. Obama as President of the United States is monumental and done much already to change the perception of the nation abroad. Sadly this will just be a passing fancy if the policy and actions of the Obama administration do not differ from that of previous administrations. President Obama has been in charge of foreign policy a very short time but some of the decisions he has made seem consistent with the failed and disrespectful foreign policy of America's past. Hopefully with trips to long neglected parts of the globe this summer, the president can chart a brave new world in American foreign policy.