Under President George W. Bush’s administration our great democracy became a pariah in the world community. Even our staunchest European allies turned against us when Bush launched his ill-fated, immoral and illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.

The nations of the world have many legitimate reasons to distrust the United States; only under the wise leadership of President Barack Obama can we overcome Bush’s legacy of Gitmo and Iraq. It’s time for us to start mending fences, and to rejoin the international community as a member in good standing.

We can start by participating in the United Nations conference on racism despite the legitimate concerns that the meeting will be used by Muslim nations to ostracize Israel.

“The State Department said it would send diplomats next week to participate in preparatory meetings for the World Conference Against Racism, which is set to be held in Geneva, Switzerland in April and which some countries including Israel have already decided to boycott.

During the Bush administration the United States and Israel walked out the first U.N. conference on racism in Durban, South Africa in 2001 over efforts to pass a resolution comparing Zionism – the movement to establish and maintain a Jewish state – to racism.” — The Associated Press

Israel is a stalwart ally of the United States, and the world is aware of the special relationship between the two nations. If an attempt is made to pass a resolution equating Zionism with racism, we should vehemently oppose it, but we shouldn’t walk away from the conference.

Due to the United States long and sordid history of staging coups in Third World nations, and our recent invasion of Iraq it’s understandable that many countries consider us racist. It’s imperative that our great democracy demonstrates that we don’t look down on people of color, and we can start by participating in the World Conference Against Racism. Instead of dropping bombs on people of color, it’s time that we sat down with them and discuss ways of fostering peace.

The event against racism will take place in April, let’s hope that Obama will do the right thing a send a delegation to the conference.

—————————————————————————————————————————-

—————————————————————————————————————————-