Obama: The US is a Pacific power

Obama: The US is a Pacific power
The United States will remain a Pacific power. That is the main message of Barack Obama’s four-nation tour of Asia. His first stop was Japan, followed by Singapore where he attended the APEC summit of 21 economic leaders, before he leapfrogged to China whose emergence as a global economic and military power worries many Americans, and then South Korea.
Obama’s trip is like the return of the prodigal patriarch who has gone astray, done many bad things, wants to make amends and occupy his rightful throne in the household called Asia. Unfortunately for him, somebody else, China, is claiming part of the territory. China is rich and big. It also happens to be Uncle Sam’s biggest lender. If today, China collects the $800 billion of US IOU holdings, Washington DC will beg for mercy. Thankfully for Obama, Japan is also wary of China and looks to the US for guidance.
For the Philippines, Obama sent her charming secretary of state, Hillary Clinton for a 24-hour visit, Nov. 12 and 13. She wowed Filipinos, especially the young, with her wit, intelligence, warmth and remarkable candidness. Because of Hillary, Filipinos forgot that Obama didn’t bother to drop by Manila although the capital is midway between Tokyo and Singapore.
In Tokyo at the Suntory Hall Nov. 14, Obama defined America’s strategic stake and gameplan in Asia. He said “for generations we have also been a nation of the Pacific. Asia and the United States are not separated by this great ocean; we are bound by it. We are bound by our past -- by the Asian immigrants who helped build America, and the generations of Americans in uniform who served and sacrificed to keep this region secure and free. We are bound by our shared prosperity -- by the trade and commerce upon which millions of jobs and families depend. And we are bound by our people -- by the Asian Americans who enrich every segment of American life, and all the people whose lives, like our countries, are interwoven.”
Obama’s own life is a part of that story. As a boy, Obama visited Japan where he looked at the great bronze Amida Buddha in Kamakura and where he focused more on matcha ice cream.
Obama-san claims to be America’s first Pacific president, whatever that means. He said: “I am an American president who was born in Hawaii and lived in Indonesia as a boy. My sister Maya was born in Jakarta, and later married a Chinese-Canadian. My mother spent nearly a decade working in the villages of Southeast Asia, helping women buy a sewing machine or an education that might give them a foothold in the world economy. So the Pacific Rim has helped shape my view of the world.”
Asserted Obama: “We have a stake in the future of this region, because what happens here has a direct effect on our lives at home. This is where we engage in much of our commerce and buy many of our goods. And this is where we can export more of our own products and create jobs back home in the process. This is a place where the risk of a nuclear arms race threatens the security of the wider world, and where extremists who defile a great religion plan attacks on both our continents. And there can be no solution to our energy security and our climate challenge without the rising powers and developing nations of the Asia Pacific.”
To meet these common challenges, Obama said “the US looks to strengthen old alliances and build new partnerships with the nations of this region. To do this, we look to America's treaty alliances with Japan, South Korea, Australia, Thailand and the Philippines -- alliances that are not historical documents from a bygone era, but abiding commitments to each other that are fundamental to our shared security.”
At his press conference in Tokyo, Obama declared: “Throughout my trip and throughout my presidency, I intend to make clear that the United States is a Pacific nation, and we will be deepening our engagement in this part of the world… We have to understand that the future of the United States and Asia is inextricably linked.”
Under President George Bush, the US lost a lot of respect and prestige abroad. He invaded Iraq by lying about the alleged presence of weapons of mass destruction. He ordered mass arrests of Al Qaeda suspects. He incurred the ire of Muslims around the world, not a few of whom volunteered to commit jihad. The Bush administration engaged in torture of non-combatants and maintained detention cells abroad where human rights violations were the norm among US soldiers.
And then the financial meltdown happened, triggered mainly by the greed and recklessness of American banks and their executives. Large US companies that should have been allowed to fall were rescued with taxpayers’ money even as millions of Americans lost their homes and suffered massive declines in wealth.
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