Holding Pattern

We can be pretty sure of one foreign policy change to be expected from an Obama administration:

No needless wars and stop to a diplomacy based on threats and insults (eg: "Axis of Evil", "You're with us or aginst us!"). This alone will improve other countries attitudes towards the United States which will in turn improve their cooperation on vital security matters.

To whats real - So only people that you see fit should have democracy. Typical liberal hypocracy. Thanks to everyone on this blog for making me feel smarter, I have to go back to work now because my Obama check hasn't come yet, see you next time I feel like chatting with retards.

To Bass Pro thanks for proving my point about uneducated sheepish people. I new there would be plenty reading Newsweek

We are getting a clearer picture of Obama each day in the foreign policy arena. It points to arrogance, weakness, and dishonesty, and this is what we should focus on right now:

Obama met with Iraq's Maliki in July 2008 and began or tried to negotiate with him BEFORE he was president.

In July 2008, at the same time the Bush administration was negotiating a still elusive agreement to keep the U.S. military in Iraq, OBAMA TRIED TO CONVINCE IRAQI LEADERS IN PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS THAT THE CURRENT PRESIDENT, GEORGE W. BUSH, SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO ENACT THE DEAL WITHOUT CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL.

A few weeks before the Nov. 4 election Obama threw conservative reporters off of his plane.

In October 2008 VP candidate Joe Biden predicted an international crisis would be staged in 2009 to test Obama after he became president, and predicted that people in the U.S. would not like the way Obama handles it. First time in known history that a VP candidate has made such a prediction about his presidential running mate.

On Nov. 8, 2008, President-elect Barack Obama's private conversation with Poland's president created an international disagreement, with President Lech Kaczynski saying Obama promised to continue a missile-defense system and the transition office saying the Democrat made no such commitment.

@ ariziowa.
So the United States is comparable to the romans? your country is just a footnote in the history books to come, it has nothing of the longevity of rome, nor does it compare in relative power or influence.

The United States will be most remebered as a bad example, a country in which all the bad sides of capitalism compounded with religious zeal and widespread ignorance to create the self-serving deathmachine that is the us military. Fortunately for the rest of us it will fall from power pretty soon.

I agree that Obama really shouldn't focus too much on foreign affairs just now. We've got major problems at home that must be his top priority.

JIMMY CARTER IN BLACKFACE!

Take a look at the sudden increase in suicide bombings since 11/05/2008. Just today 38 people died. It sure did not take the 6 months that Sen. Joseph Biden predicted for someone in the world to test President-elect Barack Obama. It did not even take 6 DAYS!!!.

The Prime Minister of Iraq, feeling his oats, has been demanding the withdrawal of U.S. troops in the time-table set by Mr. Obama during the campaign at the urging of his bosses in Iran. I wonder whether they are going to sign the SOFA agreement soon.

The voters of the United States decided they wanted change and have WE got change!!!. All this crap about President-to-be Barack Obama having time to tackle foreign policy is just a figment of the imagination of the author of this stupid article. The various commentators are trying to write history before it happens. Most of the chattering experts did not even take history courses in college.

Comment: I am very encouraged that we will see the US under President obama head in a different foreign policy direction. I tink the Obama ream will draw together our allies in developing a coherent way of dealing with the worlds problems.
I believe we will see the obama team move quickly to withrdrawl our troops from Iraq. The situation there seems to be stable enough that we can maintain a minimal presence.
I also think we will see Obama step up our presence in Aphganistan. The situatioin there is bleak and we are in danger of losing the war.
Finally, I think we will work closely with our Eurpean allies to exert more econmic pressure on Iraq to end their nuclear aspirations. I think McCain would have been trigger happy and bombed Iran leaving us with another mideast was
First, I think Obama will draw down our forces in Iraq at a quick pace. These forces can be better deployed in P

Don't for a minute fool yourself into believing our new President will consider the past as a window to look through towards the future of this country. President Obama is not your typical voice in the crowd. When he speaks, people are inspired by his message and his aspirations for this great country of ours. Rest assured, we have much to learn from him. Your characterization of the worlds problems barely scratch the surface. and are but a sound bite away from oblivion. Barack Obama does not talk in short shallow sound bites, instead he speaks to the heart of the people and he will use that human connection in his foreign policy. So far, the former administrations approach to world policy issues (including democrats) falls miserably short
of even the the easiest ones to solve. We can no longer view the rest of the world as "The rest of the world".
We must view it as "The rest of humanity". There will be pessimistic people who will read this and think I am wearing blinders, I assure you I am aware of the state of our world, a world in which just a day ago a thirteen year old girl was buried up to her neck and stoned to death for being raped and bringing so called "Dishonor" to her family. This fabled based frame of mind will not be tolerated in an Obama Administration. We have much to offer the world in the way of human rights education, and the rest of our world knows it full well. Dispair not, we are in good hands.......

The mistake that JFK made on the Bay of Pigs was that he showed too much deference to Eisenhower and followed through on Eisenhower's idiotic invasion plan. A lesson to Obama is to not show any deference to "Dunce" Bush and to scrap every one of his plans going forward.

Right now It's The Economcy Stupid and Obama has to focus on getting our economy straightened out by killing all "Dunce" Bush's tax cuts so he can establish his own. After Obama gets the economic plans done then he needs to turn to foreign policy. He needs to be more even handed in dealing with the Isrealis and Palestinians. He needs to pull our troops out of Iraq and get more into Afghanistan. He needs to do some serious nation building in Afghanistan to undo the biggest mistake that "Warmonger" Bush made.

I am so laughing at the pathetic attempts of the repugnant ones posting here trying to revise history. Obama did not negotiate with Maliki before the elections, that's just trying to put Ronny Raygunz's sin of dealing with the Iranian hostage takers on Obama. I also laugh at them whining that Obama threw off conservative reporters off his plane, he should have done it at 30,000 feet to improve the reporter gene pool.

Obama is not going to change anything when it comes to the way the world is today. Nobody can change it. Countries maybe can change and event or stop a single group from continuing the behavior they bring forward, but they always have and always will come back in another form. When talking about the middle east we are talking about a religious war or divide that has been going on since the beginning of mankind and will never stop. Terrorists, Iran whoever you want to talk about has one goal and that is to wipe certain groups of people of the face of the planet. They may sit and down and talk with Obama, but they would only do it to hide their true goal. Terrorists or Bin Laden, whoever you want to put in that group could care less about a diplomatic resolution becuase that is not in their dictionary. WE can get as many allies or countries on our side and restore what the rest of the world thinks of us which so many of you are so worried about for some reason, but it won't matter. We can either think we are so smart and take time to judge and blah blah blah, but guess what? They will attack again and then again and it will never end. So we can either be pro-active and protect this country or sit back, talk and be reactive. Problem is the next time we may not have a chance to be reactive because the next time will make 9/11 look like a slap in the face. Obama is no savior or messiah...he is just another extreme-left liberal democrat who ran a great campaign. he has done nothing to prove he can do anything. Until he does, quit licking his ass like he is some god.

USA is in such a massive economic quagmire that it presumptuous to give a green signal to Barack Obama to achieve his economics, financial and fiscal goals in his first term. He must save every cent that is wasted fighting illegal wars around the world and supporting Zionist Israel aggression in Palestine. First of all, Obama has to withdraw from Iraq much sooner than later and save over 12-15 billion dollars a month American tax-payers money wasted in Iraq as well as giving Israel annually over eight billion dollars as free handout and further ten billion dollars in military aid.

He must also tell the American Jews that they are American citizen and not Israelis and that US cannot economically afford to fight proxy wars for Israel and wreck its diplomatic relations with the Arabs for long. American Jews will not be able to control or direct US foreign policy in favour of Israel as in the past and that it will be based on justice and fairness to all sides. Israel has to stop building illegal settlements on Palestinians land and bomb them with smart and missiles by F16sas and when they wished. He must tell the Palestinians to achieve peace with Israel and stop violence against her innocent people.

If Barack Obama wants to bring peace in the Middle East , and between the Israelis and Palestinians, he must get himself new glasses and throw away the old ones made in Israel by the American Jewish Lobby for the Israeli Zionist Jews and worn in the past by every US administration's foreign policy makers, and look for the first time at the peace process both from the Israelis and Palestinians vision of justice and fairness. As long as Mr Obama surrounds himself with American-Suffocating -Jewish-Lobby, justice will not come to the Palestinians and the violence will never end. USA must stop its vertical support for the Zionist Israelis to achieve peace for the world . Instead, American politicians chasing American Jewish votes to win elections.

@ bass pro
Thanks i accept.
It might be said that it is your duty to protect the rest of us from threats that you have summoned yourself.
By supporting the israelis in all that they have done, despite the protest of the international community, you (allong with your cronies in the country that addicted china to opium and enslaved india) have created the middle-eastern problem. By aiding the "white" side in the russian civil war of the 20s, and intimidating the soviet union by slaying hundreds of thousands of japanese civilians through the press of a button, you have had no small part in creating that schism.By supplying arms, finance and training to the tyrranical armies of Chiang Kai Chek you also added to the suffering of the chinese people.
This is not support for the likes of Stalin and Mao, only an objective aknowledgement of the fact that you contributed to their rise to power by intervening on the side of the autocrats that they replaced. Let me also remind you that you put both Pinochet and Saddam hussein in power.