This editorial from Brazil’s O Globo demonstrates again how important American economic soundness and foreign policy is to the rest of the world. Commenting on foreign affairs and the spectacle now taking place in Washington over the budget, O Globo takes a look at what it will take for President Obama to win in 2012, and suggests that if his more multilateral foreign policy proves a failure, a return to Bush-style unilateralism is likely to ensue.
The O Globo editorial says in part:
In his favor, Clinton had the longest period of economic growth in U.S. history, and he managed to end the greatest war that the U.S., through NATO, had yet been involved in – in the former Yugoslavia. Obama, by contrast, faced the Great Depression, the largest crisis of capitalism since the crash of 1929 and the depression that followed in the 1930s. Furthermore, he had to deal with two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan inherited from Bush’s government. Obama managed to get the U.S. out of the first, still faces a very complicated situation with the second, and is striving to rid the country of a third, in Libya, while continuing to support his allies against the dictator Qaddafi.
His smart-power style, as opposed to Bush’s barbarism, is now undergoing its greatest test with the revolutions in the Arab world. Tunisia and Egypt went well, but the big challenge of the moment is Libya. The worst would be a partition or extension of the Western presence in the country, which could inflame radical Islamic forces. In addition, there are difficult situations in Yemen and Bahrain.
The president may have embarked on his reelection campaign a little earlier than Bush or Clinton. But for now, his greatest concern is whether he will have the money to make the government work. If it’s up to Republicans, the size of the government, now about 23 percent of the U.S. economy, will drop to 20 percent by 2015 and 15 percent by 2050. This is no part of Obama’s plans.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.
Founder and Managing Editor of Worldmeets.US