Translated material
Obama went to the front
The election campaign moved outside the United States
Senator Barack Obama's nine-day foreign visit on the eve of his 47th birthday in early August is attracting a lot of attention. After all, the most important regions of the world are being visited by the Democratic Party candidate for the presidency of the United States, who, if he wins the November elections, will determine the country's foreign policy for the next four years.At the end of the tour, Barack Obama will visit key European countries - Germany , France, and Great Britain. Today, his program includes meetings with the leadership of Jordan and the leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. Presumably, the senator will spend the entire Wednesday in Israel, where his interlocutors will be Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, President Shimon Peres, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, as well as the leader of the opposition Likud party, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The exact dates and places of meetings of the American politician are classified for security reasons, which adds additional intrigue to the visit.
The very beginning of this trip developed in the style of a detective story. As part of a delegation of American lawmakers, Barack Obama unexpectedly arrived in Afghanistan on Saturday, July 19, without the usual escort of journalists. He spoke with President Hamid Karzai, and at the American base in Jalalabad he met with the governor of this province. At negotiations in Afghanistan, he promised to help this country not only in the field of security, but also in economic recovery. Even before the visit, Barack Obama made a proposal to increase the military contingent in Afghanistan by at least two brigades, that is, by 7,000 people. He believes that in Afghanistan the Americans “need more troops and more helicopters,” and these forces can be freed up through a phased but mandatory withdrawal of troops from another hot spot— Iraq . “The central front in the fight against terrorism,” he said, should be Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan, having changed into light khaki trousers and a plaid shirt after official negotiations, the senator talked at a military base with American commanders and ordinary military personnel, inquiring about their moods. There was even time for a brief basketball game, with Obama teasing the uniformed spectators: "I know what you're here for - to watch your fellow soldiers beat me."
Obama's short visit to front-line Iraq was carried out in a similar style, reports of which in the media were contradictory due to the same security requirements. Both there and in neighboring Kuwait, where he also visited, the senator said that the Americans needed to leave Iraq in accordance with a certain schedule and at a pace of one or two brigades per month. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that the Democratic candidate for US President promised him to withdraw troops within 16 months after coming to the White House. The release of these deadlines drew criticism from many US military personnel and Republican presidential candidate John McCain. They believe that it is premature to reduce the military presence in Iraq, and that announcing a timetable for this process is dangerous and plays into the hands of the enemy.
For a contender for the White House, this trip is unprecedented in American history. The attention to detail, the level of meetings, and security measures are in many ways identical to ensuring visits by senior government officials. Interest in the visit from the media is unusually high. More than two hundred “sharks of pen and microphones” applied for 40 correspondent seats on board Obama’s plane. The main stars of the news programs of the largest American television networks - Charles Gibson (ABC), Brian Williams (NBC) and Katie Couric (CBS) - introduce viewers directly to the details of the overseas travel of the charismatic politician from the scene of action.
Against this background, the Obama campaign's assurances that the visit has nothing to do with the senator's presidential campaign sound somewhat amusing. “This is not a campaign trip,” says communications adviser Robert Gibbs, “this is not a rally or a propaganda meeting, it is simply a series of meaningful meetings with friends and allies.” And Obama himself answered during his stay in Afghanistan and Iraq that he was more interested in “listening to people than speaking himself”: “I went on the trip as a US senator, it is the task of the president of the country to carry out foreign policy.”
“Of course, this is almost a presidential trip, this is a continuation of the election campaign,” Washington analyst Antonia Bodnar says in an interview with Vremya Novostey. - This is a response to the criticism of Republican candidate John McCain, who reproached Obama for his lack of foreign policy experience, naivety, and ignorance of the state of affairs on the ground in problem regions. Obama went to score foreign policy points. After his return, his speeches and arguments will be replenished with references to specific people, quotes from conversations with military men, politicians and government figures known in the United States. This should lessen the impact of Republican attacks on the young senator's limited experience in foreign affairs. Obama has paid a lot of attention to these issues in recent weeks. And it was not just about Iraq, Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He sharply opposed McCain's proposal to exclude Russia from the G8, calling it a mistake that would not stop the spread of nuclear weapons."
Not all experts, however, are confident in the positive gains of this visit. With so much attention from the press and high stakes, says Republican political strategist Vin Weber, "the slightest misstep, the smallest mistake, can bring a completely different result than the gambler expects." According to him, the European part of Obama's visit looks like a presidential visit, but the Americans "will absolutely not tolerate the election of their president, even indirectly, being under European influence." John McCain's campaign expressed its bewilderment at the "removal of the national election campaign outside of America." Republican adviser Charles Black said they will raise the issue of equal access for candidates to the airwaves to television networks. 71-year-old McCain, not without challenging the Democrat, went to the American outback, concentrating on high gas prices, difficulties with mortgages, an alarming decline in automobile production and other internal affairs.