Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Can this man change the world?

Can this man change the world? This is the question many people ask, expecting an optimistic answer, while discussing the history Barack Obama would be creating on 20th January, 2009. The words "Yes! We can" became more popular than "either with us or with them". The words of Barack Obama became more popular than the words of George Bush Jr. The Americans heard the words of Bush Jr in the year 2001 biting their nails and fuming with anger and gave a mandate for its president to launch and attack on Afghanistan which the White House called "attack on terrorism". The Americans in the year 2008 too heard the words of Barack Obama with tension on their faces and concern in their hearts when he said "yes! we can".

But can this man really change the world. Can this man really change the way the Americans see the world. What Obama needs to do to change the world and can he really do it? What does change mean to the Americans and the rest of the world. Here are few changes and I believe that without bringing in change in these preceptions the change is incomplete.

Can America stop thinking that they can invade and attack anyone in the world they feel like? American thinks so because nobody can confront it in the battlefield . Millitary expenditures of the USA is more than that of the combined world. Therefore, no affected country would like to confront the mighty US in the battle field and would like to attack in a manner, America calls "terrorist".
America now faces the threat of a 'nuclear terror' and 'bio terror'. The nuclear and bio-terror threat is primarily from the lumpen elements of the countries that are fighting US agression, the countries that developed nuclear weapons as deterrent to possible attack from the American and the Western nations. Can Obama change the way countries like Iran, Afghanistan, Libiya and Iraq look at the United States?

After the Russians pulled out from Afghanistan terrorism stopped in the former Communist Republic. Can Obama pull out its forces from Afghanistan and Iraq and send a message across the globe that he is serious in ending terrorism?

This is the change that one who is affected by terrorism expects from a country that claims itself to 'end terror'. I quote Noam Chomsky from the book 'Perilous Power', " ... under Reagan administration pressure, the United Nations passed resolutions on terrorism; the first major one was in December 1987, a resolution condemning the crime of terrorism in the strongest terms, calling on all the states to work together to eradicate the plague and so on - a long, detailed resolution. It passed, but not unanimously. It passed 153 to 2 with one abstention, Honduras abstained. The two who voted against it were usual two, the United States and Israel".

All the best Mr President. All the best Barack Obama.

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