Obama’s Presentation to International Society

The introduction ceremony for the United States’ new international policies under Obama’s direction has aroused great expectations throughout the world. It took place at the Conference on Security in Munich through a speech by his vice-president, Joseph Biden. In reality, it was a mere declaration of intentions with few new characteristics.

Biden did not attempt to offer excuses for the grave errors built up during the rule of the previous president, the effects of which have been suffered by various nations attending the conference. Despite this, the vice-president assumed already familiar postures: “We will act in accordance with others whenever we can, and when we act independently it will be because there was no other option.” This phrase could have come from Bush’s mouth. Even the wretched Rumsfeld in his era of grand splendor could have offered up this one: “The United States will do more – this is the good news. The bad news is that we will ask more of our associates.” Many understood this statement to mean ‘more troops for Afghanistan.’

On the other hand, he affirmed that international organizations, so despised by Bush, “help us to improve our collective security, economic interests, and values.” Therefore, the U.S. “will compromise, listen and consult with them” – three verbs scarcely used by the previous administration.

But little dialogue will occur if certain seemingly unalterable lines have already been established. According to Biden, the administration will pursue the spread of the missile defense shield in Europe, the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia will not be recognized, and Iran’s nuclear program will be deemed “illegal.” NATO will also confront terrorism and internet security, as well as guarantee energy supplies and spread itself beyond the zone for which it was created. Not for nothing is the Pentagon, still run by those who predate Obama’s coming to power.

It is worthwhile to highlight Biden’s words, for they show a certain naivete: “We do not recognize the right of any nation to have spheres of influence.” It is surprising to hear this from the mouth of a prominent politician from the country that invented the Monroe Doctrine (“America for the Americans”) and that, in fact, has tried to continue applying it whenever it has been able to – the same as other countries that seek a more favorable position in the international concert of nations. Spheres of influence can be denied, but “to possess them, they must exist.”

If, in fact, Obama were pretending to steer U.S. foreign policy in a new direction, Biden would not have uttered these words in Munich: “We are going to ask others that they take responsibility for some of those that are now in Guantanamo, since we have decided to close it. Our security is shared, so we also share the responsibility to defend it.”

It would have been a much more innovative communique if Obama had not only taken the decision to close the infamous Guantanamo prison, which has passed into the annals of ignominy, but had also decided to abandon the existing naval base there and to return to Cuba, the legitimate historical owner, this last colony in Latin America.

Furthermore, if he had wanted to show in Munich that a new hand held the reins in the White House, the U.S. would not have had to force its allies to accept in their territory prisoners today incarcerated in the Guantanamo prison. Perhaps the most powerful country in the world lacks the necessary resources and skills to resolve on its own the unsustainable situation it created for itself with the opening of the Guantanamo Detention Center? If the U.S. doesn’t know how to get out of its own crises without help, how does it hope to help others?

It is good that cooperation may come from Europe so that some of Obama’s initiatives might achieve success. But over the last few years, it has been fitting for the U.S. to clear away the debris spread through the world by Bush’s failed neocons. Neither Obama nor Biden should forget this in order to avoid making the same mistakes.