Obama Will Face a Defiant World on Foreign Visit

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/washington/29global.html?ref=todayspaper

- Hide quoted text -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 9:30 AM
Subject: re: Obama Will Face a Defiant World on Foreign Visit
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   After eight years of Bush/Cheney, our allies respect us less and our enemies fear us less. This is not of president's Obama's making; he was elected by a population revolted by this slip in our standing. Nonetheless, this is the reality of 2009 in which he must advance his agenda. To move forward into a new era of trust and cooperation, the U.S. will have to demonstrate anew that it is trustworthy in negotiation and faithful to our treaty obligations. As long as we continue to shield those who tortured, who enabled torture, and who covered up torture--in defiance of the 1984 Protocols on Torture--our allies have no incentive to enter into any new agreements with us.

Barry Levine