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“To those examining [U.S. President Barack] Obama's performance from outside the United States, it is understandably the foreign policy-related decisions which loom largest in his first-year record,” according to an editorial in the December 26, 2009, Sydney Morning Herald of Australia. The publication adds:
The decision to close the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay - though drawn out and delayed - has ended a stain on the US human rights record. Washington's re-engagement with the rest of the world and its renewed acceptance of the multilateral architecture of diplomacy, ending George W. Bush's unilateralism, has been welcomed in Western countries with almost childlike eagerness. The premature award of the Nobel Peace Prize is a measure of that. In his acceptance speech Obama conceded as much, and acknowledged the irony of being a recipient who had just ordered more troops to war in Afghanistan.The Herald said, “Equally significant, though, was his reassertion of the United States' renewed desire to lead not only by authority and power, but by example.”
If you want to read the entire editorial, please see “After Obama's first year, things can only get better.”
Technorati Tags: Obama's Foreign Policy Decisions,U.S. Image
