Destaque Internacional (International Highlights) - Year XIV - No. 365 - October 21, 2012. Interactive Editorial. Person Responsible: Javier González. We welcome suggestions, opinions and criticism. E-mail: destaque2016@gmail.com. The present text may be distributed freely, without any need to mention the source.

A South American approach (3)

American elections and foreign policy:

leadership or decadence

In Latin America, autochthonous neopopulists, Iranian extremists and Chinese imperialists are feeling as if with their jaws poised to attack, not unlike wolves in a chicken coop. To stem this danger, the issue of whether the United States can turn around the current process of weakening of its regional influence has become a matter of life or death; as also has the need to urgently overcome a paralyzing guilt complex that the left has helped to create, both inside and outside the United States, this being why the American diplomatic representatives feel somewhat ashamed of taking on clear leadership in the fight for freedom

  1. In the forthcoming American elections, what is at stake, maybe as never before, is not only the victory of a candidate and his party but also the very international leadership of the United States on the world scene and also within the Americas. The external policy of this country has now reached a dilemma, and here it is possible to pursue the quest for a reestablishment of the international influence of the United States, or to worsen the process of decadence, which the enemies of freedom would relish.
  2. On 8 October, the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, in a speech at the famous Virginia Military Institute (VMI) under the title of "The Mantle of Leadership", criticized the "strategy of passivity" of the foreign policy of the United States during the Obama Administration and the resulting dilution of the country's leadership. The Republican candidate made a statement that the United States should cease to be "at the mercy of events" and should also resume the country's vocation "to shape history".
  3. As models, Mr Romney mentioned General Marshall, a former student at the VMI, and also Sir Winston Churchill, the former British prime minister, not only for what they did against the Nazi dictatorship but also their stand against the loser spirit that was then running rife in the West, spreading feelings of depression and the belief that the Nazi powerhouse was invincible.

  4. Mr Romney, in the statement he made at the Virginia Military Institute, after warning about the rekindling of the loser spirit in the United States, warned that "if America does not lead, then this space could be filled by other world powers that may not share our interests and our values, and then the world could become darker for our friends and also for us".
  5. However, there could be a wide gap between what is said and what is done, and we don't know to what extent Presidential candidate Mitt Romney can implement what he is predicting, should he win the Presidential Elections. With this having been mentioned, we must recognize that the diagnosis that the Republican candidate has made about the illness that currently afflicts American foreign policy is objective, and also that the proposed remedy is appropriate.
  6. From the South American standpoint, and also in defense of freedom in the region, it is now absolutely vital that the United States can reverse the trend towards greater frailness of the United States' international influence, and that they can also overcome the paralyzing guilt complex that the left, both inside and outside the United States, have helped to create, this being why their diplomatic representatives seem somewhat ashamed to take over clear leadership in favor of freedom. As mentioned in previous articles, due to the natural process by which the United States continues to pull its weight on the continent, the very political future of Latin America largely depends on the results of the forthcoming Presidential Elections in the United States.
  7. Should Mr Obama win the election, and continue the current process of erosion of the leadership of the United States, old and new populist movements may feel free to continue to destroy the State of Right in several countries in this region, including Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Argentina, while also preserving the disgraceful Cuban regime. It is also worrying to see that autochthonous neopopulists, Iranian extremists and Chinese imperialists feel as if they have their jaws free, like wolves in a chicken coop, largely favored by the inertia and passiveness shown by the United States diplomacy. One recent example of this passive stance is the unlimited support that President Obama has given to the "kerenskian" policy of friendship that Colombian President Santos has adopted in relation to the sanguinary Colombian drug trafficking guerrillas, with a dialogue that shall take place in nowhere else but in La Havana, the lair of the Castrist wolves.
  8. Also in a previous article, there has been a comment about the decisive weight that the Hispanic vote could have to decide the Presidential Elections in the United States. Recent opinion polls have confirmed that the State of Florida, with its high contingent of voters of Hispanic origin, especially from Cuba, could once again be decisive in the national result, as it has been in several previous elections. In this regard, it is essential to consider the historical role of Cuban-Americans to continue to inform the Hispanic voters about the drama and the disaster of the Communist experiment in Cuba, and also to press the Presidential candidates to take firm diplomatic measures against the Continental left, both the old left and the new.
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  10. It is hoped that, in the forthcoming elections, there is a prevalence of lucidness among the American electorate and also that, when the votes are cast, that the prevailing understanding is that the issue of the United States' foreign policy and also the reestablishment of the international influence of this nation is of fundamental importance not only because of the freedom issue, and not only in Latin America, as also in the Middle East and the Far East, not to mention the United States.

Two previous editorials about US Presidential elections & Latin America:

Enfoque sudamericano (1)

Estados Unidos: elecciones presidenciales, América Latina y Cuba

El ejemplo más desastroso de la apuesta obamista en pro de los seudo "moderados" fue el apoyo de Obama al entonces presidente Lula, del Brasil, a quien llegó a elogiar como un modelo de aliado confiable

Texto completo:

http://www.cubdest.org/1206/c1209eeuucu.html

Full text in English:

US Presidential elections, Latin America & Cuba

http://www.cubdest.org/1206/c1209eeuucue.html

Enfoque sudamericano (2)

Elecciones presidenciales: América latina dentro de Estados Unidos

Si bien la mayoría de los votantes hispanos se interesa más por problemas económicos y de inmigración, una minoría activa considera relevante el tema de la política externa estadounidense con relación a América Latina, y continúa pensando que la política de Obama hacia esta región ha sido un desastre para la causa de la libertad

Texto completo:

http://www.cubdest.org/1206/c1209eeuucu02.html

Full text in English:

US Presidential elections: Latin America within the US

http://www.cubdest.org/1206/c1209eeuucue02.html