Does this bother some of you as much as it does me? When will anyone get that our government's influence is never as positive as it seems? And why does Obama think that doubling the effort and funding of failed Bush leadership in Latin America will help? http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/05/renewing_us_leadership_in_the.html
This speech sounds really...dated. It sounds like the 1960 Presidential campaign. I'm not sure if it sounds naive or if it just expects its audience to be. I'm with you weslinder. This kind of bothers me.
I'm glad to see it. I went to Mexico City for some lectures for business school and more than one speaker mentioned their disappointment in the lack of engagement from the US. Countries are looking increasingly to Mexico and Brazil for a big brother. I think that's good, but the US has a role to fill as well.
Seems like Obama pays a lot of attention to the Council of Foreign Relations... It reminds me of Bush's speeches. Very hopeful, optimistic, and flag waving...it pulls the right strings of American ideas of our dominance. I don't know how he'll execute it. Heck, I like some of Bush's speeches. Just don't like what he actually does.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-brazil25-2008may25,0,2700914.story South American union is created From the Associated Press May 24, 2008 BRASILIA, BRAZIL -- A South American union was born Friday as leaders of the region's 12 nations set out to create a continental parliament. Some see the Union of South American Nations, or Unasur, as a regional version of the European Union. Summit host Brazil wants Unasur to help coordinate defense affairs across South America, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez calls it a counterweight to the United States. Chavez said the U.S. is "trying to generate wars in South America" to "divide and conquer." Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, invited other Latin American and Caribbean nations to join the venture. "Unasur is born, open to all the region, born under the signs of diversity and pluralism," he said. But leaders found their own reasons for division. Unasur's first secretary-general, Rodrigo Borja, resigned Thursday before the organization formally met. He complained that some leaders had balked at his vision of putting other regional trade blocs, including Mercosur and the Andean Community, under Unasur. Leaders were also split over plans for a regional defense council that would resolve conflicts, promote military cooperation and possibly coordinate joint weapons production. Colombia is the only nation that opposes joining such a council, saying "the terrorist threat" it faces at home, amid 40 years of civil conflict, precludes military cooperation. But, a government statement said, "Colombia does not oppose the creation of a working group to study the theme." At the summit Friday, Lula urged wealthier nations to cut farm subsidies and import tariffs, and he defended biofuels, including ethanol, which critics blame for rising food prices. "We should not be fooled one bit by the arguments of those who, for protectionist or geopolitical motives, feel uncomfortable with our industry, our agriculture and with the realization of our energy potential," Lula told the leaders. Unasur could ease political tensions, promoting development on a continent where intra-regional trade in 2006 topped $72 billion, experts say. South America's economy is expected to grow by 4.7% this year, according to the United Nations' Economic Commission on Latin America.
I think that the US needs to enhance it's image in the Americas, too. In the recent void of involvement, Hugo Chavez has appeared as a Bolivar-esque hero to many South Americans and some presidents, such as Bolivia's Evo Morales, have been elected on a Chavez platform and have developed strong ties with Venezuela. Also, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile are emerging powers that we need to have strong relationships with. Heck, if we can have "hand-holding" relationships with countries half a world away, we can develop some within our own hemisphere.
Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations--entangling alliances with none, I deem the essential principles of our government, and consequently those which ought to shape its administration. -- Some guy I think might have known a little about the Presidency and foreign policy, and the Democrats claim as the founder of their party We were the clear leader of the Western Hemisphere when we had the most freedom (real freedom, not FDR's Last Two Utopian pseudo-Freedoms) and led by example. Obama's promise to strong-arm other nations into equality will be disastrous. It is Bush Doctrine on steroids. Our "hand-holding relationships half a world away" have propped up dictators, allowed civil liberties to be destroyed, wreaked havoc on real equality, and destroyed self-sufficiency and sovereignty. We need to look at how to get out of them, instead of creating new ones.
He said this in the context of his belief that the US should be an agrarian democracy of citizen-soldier-farmers. That just doesn't work today.
if we can reinvent the US economy to consist of a few rich people selling knives, insurance, and banking "secrecy"/money laundering I'm all for it, otherwise i just don't think its sustainable.
"Renewing leadership in Latin America" doesn't start with ripping up NAFTA. Nor does it start with protectionist trade policies.... Obama is just in over his head.
Do you really think that we benefit as a nation from embargoes on nations that disagree with us politically, sponsoring coups on governments that won't deal with corporations based here, oppressive tariffs on goods manufactured in societies where we disagree with worker wages, foreign aid to prop up dictators, and subsidizing agriculture to the point of destroying competition around the world? If you do, you listened to the wrong people when you were at University of Chicago.
No but I don't think a completely swiss-style approach is the best either. I hate ag subsidies and am saddened that none of the candidates will touch that sacred cow. Equally worse is the protectionism built in against Brazilian sugarcane - If we're going ot have ethanol, sugarcane is the way to do it.
the guy wants other countries to adhere to the same environmental standards and employee safety standards as us companies. yeah that's ripping up nafta
Well, it's ripping up the part of NAFTA that makes bajillions for US companies that don't want to adhere to even a modicum of regulated integrity.