My prediction:
The USA will be much more secure under Obama than it has been under Bush.
Here's why:
The Bush people have alienated our allies around the world and created many new enemies.
Perhaps Bush and the neoconservatives have done this inadvertently, under the misguided idea that they could bully other nations into doing the USA's bidding.
When Bush said, "You're either with us or against us," it was the dumbest thing I ever heard in foreign policy.
No decent person could have supported our misuse of military force.
Bush stepped all over the vast world-wide goodwill we enjoyed after 9/11.
We should have been building schools and hospitals all across South Asia and the Middle East.
Instead we have been bombing and killing left and right.
Every time we bombed another wedding party and killed another 50 people, we created hundreds or even thousands of new enemies.
No wonder they hate and fear us. We've been killing their cousins and their aunts and uncles.
I always thought 9/11 should have been treated as a criminal conspiracy, which is what it was, and its leaders should have been tracked down by police forces around the world.
I would estimate that the plot was hatched and carried out by about 175 people scattered across fewer than half a dozen countries.
Does it make any sense to kill 100,000 people in Iraq, in response?
The 9/11 plot was developed partly in Hamburg, Germany, in Mohammad Atta's apartment, but the Bush people didn't think about invading that sovereign European nation.
Anyway, here is a column in the NY Times that explains what the Obama administration can do to make us more secure:
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/right-the-wrongs/?8dpc
(Copy and paste this address into your browser address bar.)
Basically, it says we should cultivate good relationships around the world and try to help people achieve a better life and stop being the world's bully.
Amen to that.
Please join me in wishing the Obama people good luck and Godspeed in righting the wrongs wrought by Bush.
