Now that everyone is jumping on Obama bandwagon, I have something to say about one weakness that he has: his supposed lack of experience and his clear vision for what he will do at least with respect to foreign policy. It sounds too close to everyone else on the Democratic side despite the myriad different positions one can craft considering the complex modern world. Here is my prescription to the situation. The premise of this prescription lies in two goals: 1) Any foreign policy layout should work at restoring & enhancing America's leadership in the free world 2) It should be pragmatic to reflect the day to day needs of American people. So here it goes:
1) America should open up a new front, not necessarily only militarily, on the African subcontinent. If there is any country on the planet today that can deliver order and well being to this left behind child, then it is America. Recent violence in Kenya is a great example and despite how much I like Obama, I cannot ignore the fact that he hasn't made a single statement about the tribal violence that has happened there. We all know about Sudan and Darfur. Somalia, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Congo---institutions in all these countries would immensely benefit from America's involvement. And numbers show that people in these countries are not anti America as a lot of people around the world are. If America can communicate in unequivocal terms that it would support in every way possible(including militarily), efforts by African Union on stopping genocide, reconciliation and fair elections, then it would really do a world of good both for America and Africa. Africa can give back America the legitimacy it has lost in recent years and America can deliver order to this really difficult place. Barack being of Kenyan origin can specially use it to his advantage.
2) America should engage with Iran with a long term objective of making this Shia state its ally. It still baffles me why America did not engage Iran after the help they gave in the Afghan war. Till the time current president Ahmadinejhad is in place, it might not be an overt effort but once he is out in the next elections, it might be the time to pull off the kind of opening that Kissinger managed in China. This effort has multiple reasons: 1) Prolonged stability in Iraq requires complete support for Iran. 2) Iran on US's side takes out Hezbollah from the Israel-Palestinian equation 3) Iran has not produced any terrorist in what has been a primarily Sunni movement 4) It can really push countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia to do more domestically with respect to moving towards democracy. 5) Iran has a lot of oil.
Again, fresh president in Barack would be in a much better position to take up this initiative than the incumbent one. Too much water has flown under the bridge between the current regimes in both Washington and Tehran but Barack would be in a great position to move us away from this colossal policy failure.
3) Finally, America should launch a project for finding an alternative to oil on the lines of Manhattan Project or sending an American on the moon. The project should have a time mandate, complete freedom of capital and human resources and more importantly, unequivocal support of the President. With the world moving east with India and China catching up with America, the fact still remains that no country has the kind of resources that America can mobilize for such a project. And if America can really deliver a breakthrough in this space, that means a completely new industry with new jobs, revenues from all over the world and no more slush money to rogue regimes...and most importantly, proof that America still cares about this planet!!!
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