Informed Comment

Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion

Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute

Friday, July 25, 2008

Obama ist ein Berliner

Obama addresses a crowd of 200,000 in Berlin. Some were shouting in English, "Yes we can!"



Text transcript here.

posted by Juan Cole @ 7/25/2008 12:49:00 AM

4 Comments:

At 7:39 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Obama is very popular in Germany already. you can even buy Obama t-shirts with the 'yes we can' slogan on them.

This weird excitement about a foreign politician can be explained with the desire to to see a friendly and half-way sane person in charge of the white house, i think.

Of course their is a huge desire for change in politics in general. The ruling coalition isn't as excited about Obama, since they fear, a change of leadership in the USA will cause people in Europe to demand a change (from anti-social, neoliberal positions)more aggressivly.

Personally I was not very excited or impressed by Obamas speach.

He talked of 'partnership' instead of a 'coalition of the willing', what is of course a good thing. Yet he demanded more European troops for Afghanistan (forget it, buddy) and about 'fighting terrorism' together.

So nothing really new, expect that, unlike George Bush, he can speak in coherent sentences.

 
At 9:30 AM, Blogger karlof1 said...

Obama wants a world without walls:

"The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down."

But the USA is the most recent builder of walls: In Baghdad; in Israel, where it provides the financing; and on its border with Mexico. I wonder if Obama realizes the paradox he's just created for himself? Regardless, I believe it is up to all of us to rise up and present this paradox to him and request he describe how he'll resolve it.

There are other points in his speech to address, but for me the above is the biggest and most glaring.

 
At 1:29 PM, Blogger Frauglobal said...

I thought the walls America has built were the ones Obama was talking about. One radio newscast characterized the speech as chiding Europe about its actions, but I thought he was referring to the US, not criticizing Europe. Maybe I'm just hearing what I want to hear, but I thought he meant us not them.

 
At 6:28 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Speaking of walls....

Baghdad muralists resist push for sectarian themes

Fri, 25 July 2008

BAGHDAD - It's art ornamenting life: murals of soothing landscapes and historical heroes covering the blast walls that are now as much a part of Baghdad's cityscape as date palms and desert dust.


and speaking of different bottles, same wine......


At Appearance with Sarkozy, Obama Talks Tough on Iranian Nuke Program

Fri, 25 July 2008

Sen. Barack Obama urged Iran Friday to "end its illicit nuclear program" [what's illicit about it?] or face increased pressure from a unified international community, and he warned Tehran not to "wait for the next president" before accepting proposals to resolve a stalemate with Western countries.

His comments came at a joint news conference here after conferring with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The Illinois senator said he found "uniform concern about Iran" in his meetings with leaders in the Middle East and Europe during a seven-country tour that concludes in Britain Saturday.


* I just sent the Obama campaign [ postmaster@barackobama.com, info@barackobama.com ] a note letting him/them know that if he keeps up the tough talk and threats against Iran and truly intends to send troops TO Afghanistan rather than REMOVE troops from Afghanistan I'll be voting for Ralph Nader.

 

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