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Johnstone's View 23rd January

It is a rare talent for anyone to be able to portray themselves as ‘all things to all men’; rarer still to be able to do so with some degree of honesty and integrity. Nevertheless, this feat seems to have been pulled off by the man who this week was inaugurated as the President of the United States, Barack Obama.

I feel able to write with some degree of objectivity on this matter since, in all honesty, had I been eligible, I would still have voted for the other guy. This does not mean however, that I am not extremely impressed by the new President and all that he has so far achieved, for impressed I most certainly am. I have, all the same, been highly entertained by the rush of individuals and organisations who are, apparently, quite desperate to claim him as their own, perhaps in the hope that some of the air of ‘success’ might rub off.

Sadly though, President Obama has been left with the most challenging of jobs at the most difficult of times, and with an unprecedented weight of expectation resting on his shoulders.

While here in Scotland our politics are based, all too often, on the settling of old scores stretching back for 300 years, Barack Obama will not become preoccupied by any such distraction. His election is an event of historic proportions but it has happened at a time when history is being written every day and, while the state of the economy may be at the forefront of our minds, one of his biggest challenges may still be how he deals with the Middle East.

The political decision to bring an end to the first Gulf War before it had reached its military conclusion was a failure of historic proportions. The result was the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and inevitably the second Gulf War followed on, with the loss of more of our young men and women during the subsequent occupation. Amazingly, there were times when some politicians tried to force our premature withdrawal from Iraq for a second time with all its horrifying potential consequences. Rightly, they were ignored and that country now only rarely appears in our newspapers. Sadly though, the British and American troops, now thankfully withdrawing from Iraq, find themselves committed to another foreign war in Afghanistan.

As the new President takes his place in the White House, the focus in that region has moved back to the borders of Israel with the renewed crisis in Gaza. This has resulted in many of those who have been calling most loudly for our disengagement in the Middle East to do a complete about face and demand the intervention of Western Governments to bring the Gaza conflict to an end. This twist of irony in world politics comes at the most inconvenient of times but I believe that the new President of the United States of America is a statesman of truly worldwide proportions who will not bow to the short term thinking of the liberal elite who were instrumental in his election. I believe he will rise to the challenge of his office and make sure that, when our troops come home, it will be to a country, and a world, which is a safer place for all of us.

There is also the danger however, that the economic depression in which we find ourselves, may result in the decision of the united States to look after number one, turn its back on the rest of the world and concentrate exclusively on putting its own house in order. This is exactly what happened in the last great depression of the 1920’s and 30’s and it could be argued that this, at least in part, led to the struggle for military supremacy which was World War 2.

The other policy area in which we cannot progress without the involvement of the United States is the war against climate change. As the worlds greatest polluter, per head of population, there can achieve nothing without bringing our American allies on board and, with a new man at the top, the time for real progress may now be with us.

Under Barack Obama, the motivation and the justification for the continued involvement of the United States in the affairs of the world will be much clearer. I just hope that those who are expecting an overnight change in US foreign policy will be patient and trust the man America has elected. He will be worthy of it.