Despite the fact that less than six months ago, the world rejoiced with many in the United States over the election of Barack Obama, it seems that old resentments die hard. As President Obama prepares for the G-20 summit in London, groups throughout Europe are preparing to protest his visit and the United States' — what they see as the source of the global economic recession — attempts to dictate recovery plans and diplomatic policy to the rest of the world.
While the resentment from the general public of many foreign countries is certainly understandable given the jingoistic, narrow-visioned and arrogant policies characteristic of the Bush administration, it must be remembered that Obama is doing all he can to correct the damage, both past and present, and still move forward, both domestically and within the context of the international community.
Many U.S. citizens who cringed at the former administration's inflexible and ill-fated decisions that not only alienated many friendly or neutral powers but also allowed for the massive deregulation, both at home and abroad, that facilitated the economic crash. These citizens hoped that Obama's election would mean a clean slate for the United States on the international playing field. However, despite his dramatic shift away from Bush-era policies (and his popularity abroad because of that), Obama still represents a country that, over the past decade, has seemed to disregard international participation and approval and to advocate the now collapsing economic system.
To many, Obama — however different his plans and policies are from former-President Bush's — is still a symbol of the American tendency to dominate the way the world functions economically, politically and militarily.
These feelings, especially so close to Bush's departure, are reasonable. But the international community needs to recognize that Obama's election denotes a willingness on the part of the United States to rejoin the world community that its former leader so easily dismissed and recognize that we need a change from the old way of doing things. And that is not something to protest. Many U.S. citizens, including Obama, empathize with and understand the mistakes made by the Bush administration and are intent upon fixing them. The world community must recognize that issues like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the economic recession, while certainly attributable largely to the United States, are issues that Obama inherited from his predecessor and are not of his making. Protesting during Obama's visit will essentially be preaching to the choir, telling him to recognize issues he has already committed to addressing. It is, to put it bluntly, a waste of time (and not to mention a bit late).
So while we at the Daily can appreciate the sentiments of the world community, we'd like to issue a reminder that much of the United States — and if nothing else, Obama — has gotten the message and is already in the process of correcting the problem.
