OBAMA ON MOUNT RUSHMORE

Obama will go down in history as one of the greatest president we have ever had. I look at Mount Rushmore and see Washington, who helped to give birth to the country. Next, we see Thomas Jefferson who gave us the outline for democracy followed by Abraham Lincoln who saved the union. Finally, Teddy Roosevelt gave us an appreciation of our great natural wealth. Why would I think Obama deserves to join this pantheon of greats? I have several reasons.

The first one that comes too mind relates to the resent uprising in the Muslim world. We, as Americans, know and understand what free speech and liberty means to us. The fact that one individual can say something that incites a large segment of the world population to riot. In the heat of a very volatile situation, Obama stepped forward and made the point. Freedom means they are free. They are not part of a hegemony or empire controlled by us out of fear of military reprisal of any kind. We, meaning the United States, supported freedom of the people in Libya and a number of other countries in the Middle East and now they are learning that we mean it. We have to treat them right if we want them to be our friends—they are free to choose. Other world leaders have recognized international altruism when they formed the United Nations but failed to give the concept real substance. In contrast, Obama gave substance to the word ‘liberty’ on the international stage. The world is better off for it.

Obama has recognized and has given public meaning to the two basic political ideologies; there is an innate difference between political individualism and political community. This is what democracy is all about. This is what Jefferson outlined especially when he, among others, recognized there is a difference between a parliamentary system and our system. In our system, political parties must compromise to solve problems to the satisfaction of “all of the population’ and not just half of the population. By not joining in their obstinacy to compromise, Obama is demanding our Congress adhere to this principle. Also, he is using the force of the presidency veto power to make is point.

In addition, Obama has changed the mode of international conflict. Unfortunately, some of our generals and politicians still see warfare as skies filled with massive numbers of bomber, hoards charging at other hoards of solders, and dying gloriously. I know the force of these feels because I have experienced the feeling of massive overwhelming power when I saw a big piece of the Atlantic Ocean filled from horizon to horizon with ships of war. Emotions aside, the world is no longer that way. Their are people with backpacks filled with explosive sneaking around. We have, plotters in different countries using the social media to plan riots and attacks on embassies. Wars are no longer between political states but between ideologies but still, our policy makers want to adhere to political as opposed to dialogical boundaries. Obama shed political boundaries when he recognized this and, along with a previous president, put “warfare” on a level equivalent to Interpol, individuals can go where armies fear to tread.  He fully recognized the nastiness of people killing people but also the necessity of a strike force. Rather than skies fill with bombers, we have pilotless drones: eyes in the sky but the capability of delivering lethal strikes with surgical precision. For those mission that require a level of on ground intelligence, highly trained strike force of a few highly trained military can do the job.

Just these three things, understanding international liberty, understanding internal politics, and understand warfare has changed the world for the better. I am ready to see the sculptures start carving Obama’s image into the mountain.