Our President and first lady acquitted themselves famously at the G-20 and subsequent meetings. To the diplomats of the world they were such a refreshing change, they were treated as Rock Stars.
The same cannot be said of the policy initiatives the President put on the table.
He asked for the other countries, the EU, Russia, China and India in particular, to open their treasuries and spend enough to stimulate their economies in significant
scale. The US can't bail out the world as it once could. We are no longer in a commanding position to lead the world to our will, and our faltering economy can't exert enough leverage to have a dominant impact on that of the others. The best he came away with was a non-enforceable commitment (read that intention) to contribute a trillion plus to the IMF for aid to underdeveloped countries.
This is not to diminish the value, to our influence and international image, of the
close personal relationships the President was able to forge with the other world leaders. The office now enjoys new respect abroad. Obama's obvious intellect and open mindedness has made him a force to be reckoned with.
The outcome on the foreign policy front was negligible. The rest of the world never approved of our Iraq venture. They did initially support our action in Afghanistan. When we diverted from there to Iraq, we lost them. They are not coming back to help--once burned.....
We have shed the pariah image. Hopefully that will open a path to cooperative efforts to revive the economy. I call it a good beginning.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment