What is a hero without love for mankind.
~ Doris Lessing
I have been monitoring and evaluating the various news reports on the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates for the presidential election in November, 2008.
I have watched their live TV debates and read their interviews in newspapers online and offline.
All the presidential candidates are highly recommended and worthy patriots of the United States of America who have served their nation in various capacities as either legislators or governors and as tax payers and are qualified to serve America at the highest level of public office as President of the greatest nation on earth.
The presidential election in America is of great interest to the rest of the world, because of the global role of America in the leadership of the nations in politics and human development.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and notable American non-governmental organizations and academic institutions have been active in sustainable human development programs in developing countries and one of these countries is my country, Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa and the fifth largest supplier of crude oil to the United States.
I have been employed as a project consultant by the Johns Hopkins University’s Population Communication Services (JHU/PCS) on family planning projects in Nigeria since age 21 and by other American organizations on public health projects until my early 30s. I have also seen the fiscal and technical commitments of the US to the United Nations when I was a program consultant for the UNICEF in 1988/89. Therefore, I am well informed on the global leadership of the United States and how much most of the developing countries rely on USAID and American donor agencies and the millions of beneficiaries have become components and proponents of nation building in their respective countries over the years.
The rest of the world is optimistic of America and America is the first destination for most immigrants in the world. Every nation on earth has an extension of it’s population in America and the Africans and Asians constitute the largest communities of immigrants in America who have been employed at various levels and have become taxpayers and co-workers of indigenous Americans and co-builders of the American nation since the Independence of America to date. America is more or less the capital of the world and the vision of the American Dream is the inspiration for the dreams of millions of people in other nations.
I have participated in public debates on the most suitable presidential candidates and I have decided to support Senator Hillary Clinton, because of her exemplary service to America since childhood to date and all the details are documented in her biography. I also appreciate Senator John McCain of the Republican Party.
I have to address an important issue that has become the cause of disagreement in America since 2003 and that is the war in Iraq. The decision of the US government for the invasion and occupation of Iraq was not the unilateral decision of President George W. Bush and his cabinet, but by congressional approval based on the critical report of the US Intelligence and the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“The decision to place US soldiers in harm’s way is the most significant responsibility the Constitution invests in the Congress.”
~ Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (Democrat, Nevada), 2005.
May I ask the Democrats in Congress, how many of them were against the war in Iraq before the disclosures of the Downing Street Memo on the Iraqi WMD and the Valerie Plame scandal?
“In October 2002, on the eve of the mid-term elections, Harry Reid—then Senate majority whip and one of the more influential members of his party, voted to grant Bush unprecedented powers to wage an unprovoked war of aggression against Iraq at the time of his choosing.”
~ Bill Van Auken
3 November, 2005 on WSWS
It therefore hypocritical and unethical for any of the presidential candidates to criticize any of their fellow candidates for supporting the decision to go to war against the Al Qaida by the invasion and occupation of Iraq, because none of them can deny their complicity and culpability in the congressional vote in approval of the war in Iraq.
It is very unfair and malicious that Senator Barack Hussein Obama is now using the controversial decision on the war in Iraq to challenge the electability of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
She is as innocent as the rest of us who supported the war in Iraq before the disclosures of the Downing Street Memo and the Valerie Plame Scandal.
Personally, I found it ridiculous that the intelligence report of the “errand boy” of Valerie Plame, her husband Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson would be the cause of the denouncement of the war in Iraq.
Senator Barack Hussein Obama should not degrade presidential debates into the low levels of his high school debates, because his poor knowledge of military intelligence and foreign policy shows his political naivety and immaturity.
If the opposition to the war in Iraq is the only qualification for the election of the next President of America, then the American electorate should not vote for any of the presidential candidates, because none of them is innocent of the “crime” of the invasion and occupation of Iraq .
God bless America.
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