Europe embraces Obama.

post from The Osterley Times on 25 July 2008 02:45:00 AM. © The Osterley Times

Barack Obama has made his speech in Berlin - in front of an estimated 200,000 people - and, at a time when many right wingers are talking of a war of civilisations, he was careful to dismantle the very premise:

That is why the greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another.
The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.

I notice that others are concentrating on other aspects of his speech, but it was this portion which spoke to me the most loudly. It appears to undermine the argument of the war of civilisation brigade and demand that we build bridges between our cultures rather than revel in our differences.

It was part of a theme he laid out which his Berlin audience simply loved:

He invoked the spirit of the Berlin airlift, exactly 60 years ago, as an example of a time when the US and the West stood with the beleaguered people of Berlin, who were cut off by the Communist blockade. "People of the world, look at Berlin," he said, constantly interrupted by cheers and applause from his mainly young audience. "People of Berlin, people of the world, this is our moment, this our time."
The airlift had been a show of solidarity in which the Western pilots had won over "hearts and minds", he said. "Now the world will watch what we do with this moment," he went on, as he called for a "true partnership".
He cited challenges ranging from lifting a child out of poverty in Bangladesh to helping dissidents in Burma, bloggers in Iran and voters in Zimbabwe.
The crowds went wild. They had come to the Tiergarten Park to hear Mr Obama deliver his speech as the sun set behind the Golden Angel atop its column, but the speech was long on ideals and rhetoric and short on detail.
Without mentioning the name of George Bush once, he won more applause as he outlined his vision of peace in the Middle East, a world without nuclear weapons, an end to the war in Iraq, tackling global warming and the defeat of terrorism.

Speaking as a European, sickened by eight years of Bush's bullying and horrendous foreign policy, Obama comes across a breath of fresh air.

I understand that some American friends on the left have been distressed by his move to the centre since winning the nomination, and I share their disappointment; however, it is Obama's foreign policy which most concerns me, and his talk of mending fences and listening to his allies is such a welcome change from the Bush nightmare that Europe was always guaranteed to go crazy for this guy.

After George Bush's "my way or the highway" approach to the UN and international law, the very fact that there is a possible American president who recognises international restraint - and is prepared to acknowledge international bodies - makes us somewhat giddy.

People living within the most powerful country in the world can have no idea of what it feels like for those of us who live outside it to witness an American president ripping up international law, and doing so with apparent immunity. Nancy Pelosi, whose elevation to Speaker of the House we all applauded, has appalled us by her decision not to seek impeachment of Bush no matter what crimes he may be found to have committed. The entire American political system has failed to restrain Bush as he violated international law with extraordinary rendition, torture and the Iraq war itself. We have watched, dumbfounded, as this man has been allowed to act as if the law is what he says it is.

Our faith in America is shattered.

And that is why we so wholeheartedly embrace Obama. He is saying that the rules which we all jointly agreed to still have merit. It's a sad day that something so basic should get us all so excited but, after eight years of Bush, this is what we are left with.

Obama is hinting that the end of the nightmare is in sight. Which is why Europe is going crazy for him.