In a three-hour forum on foreign policy, Obama has outlined his foreign policy agenda which stressed diplomacy and economics, rather than military reliance to gain hearts and minds of the alienated masses around the world.
"We know what we're going to get from the Republican nominee - more Bush-Cheney foreign policy," Obama said. "More support for open-ended war in Iraq. More saber-rattling toward Iran. More refusing to talk to countries we don't like. More exceptions for torture."
Obama's foreign policy initiative is designed, mainly, to restore America's standing in the world. It is respect and admiration of the people outside that have made America great.
Read this op-ed in the Manchester Union-Leader from John Hutson, the president and dean of the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, New Hampshire:
Quote:
UnionLeader.com
Fortunately, there is a clear solution to the mess that the Bush administration has made: reclaim our values and restore the rule of law. And on these critical issues, Barack Obama has spoken with the most clarity, conviction and courage of any candidate in this race.
Obama has rejected the use of torture without equivocation, calling for one standard on torture across the U.S. government. He knows that when you start to carve out exceptions for "enhanced interrogation techniques" you are giving interrogators a green light to torture. Interrogators -- whether military or civilian -- must have clear direction from the top. That's why it was unacceptable for Attorney General Michael Mukasey to hedge on the question of whether waterboarding qualified as torture. And that's why we should not choose a candidate who equivocates in his rejection of these methods, or changes positions on questions as fundamental as whether or not the United States should torture.
As a long-time professor of constitutional law, Obama is the candidate with the strongest commitment to the rule of law...
Our nation is at a turning point. Surely, there will be candidates who accuse anyone who opposes torture and indefinite detentions of being "soft" -- of lacking the "toughness" to protect America. Obama will never trim his sails or adjust his position because of these attacks. On the contrary, he is eager to take this debate head-on and to make his case to the American people that the way to get tough on terror is to once again be a nation of laws and to once again offer moral leadership to the world.
America must never become a nation symbolized by a torture victim standing on a box or by a prison camp where we don't tell people why they are being held. At this moment in history, we desperately need leadership that reclaims our future so that freedom triumphs over fear and justice triumphs over terror. I have looked closely at what the candidates have to say on these issues, and I strongly believe that Barack Obama will reclaim this future for America.
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