Obama says US must reassert world leadership
Discusses tour, good, bad news on war front
CHICAGO - Barack Obama, in his first American public appearance since returning from his weeklong tour of Iraq, Afghanistan, and western Europe, declared yesterday that America must reassert its world leadership and "the world is waiting for the United States to reengage."
Obama also said Afghanistan's weak government and rampant drug trafficking are hampering the battle against Taliban extremists and Al Qaeda terrorists who often take refuge in neighboring Pakistan. He suggested that the Pentagon should take advantage of the security gains the "surge" strategy achieved in Iraq to send more troops to Afghanistan.
"We're going to need more troops in Afghanistan. But we're also going to need more effective cooperation from the Pakistani government in rooting out these safe havens," Obama, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, told a group of several hundred minority journalists attending the Unity convention in his hometown. "So there's some good news on the war front, but there's also some bad news."
In a relatively brief but wide-ranging forum, Obama discussed his high-profile tour, which featured photo ops with world leaders, personal coverage by network news anchors, and sharp criticism from the campaign of Republican presidential hopeful John McCain.
Obama said he was puzzled that the trip would be considered an "audacious" move for a politician less than four years removed from the Illinois state Legislature.
"I basically met with the same folks that John McCain met with after he won the nomination," Obama said. "Nobody suggested that that was audacious. I think people assumed that what he was doing was [talking] to world leaders who we may have deal with should we become president. That's part of the job that I'm applying for."
"I was puzzled by this notion that somehow what we were doing was in any way different from what Senator McCain or a lot of presidential candidates have done in the past," Obama told the journalists. "Now, I admit we did it really well, but that shouldn't be a strike against me."
The appearance before the convention followed a tour that came about after McCain, who supported President Bush when he sent 30,000 additional troops to Iraq last year to stabilize the country, challenged Obama to see progress there for himself. Obama transformed McCain's challenge into an opportunity to bolster his foreign police credentials, extending his trip to include stops in Afghanistan, the Middle East, England, France, and Germany.
Though domestic and international coverage was mixed, the journey helped Obama dominate the news and placed him in roles typically reserved for sitting presidents: shaking hands with Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain, being warmly received by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, delivering a speech at the Berlin Wall that drew an estimated 200,000 spectators - and flattering comparisons with President John F. Kennedy.
Back on US soil, Obama transitioned back into campaign mode, using several TV appearances and interviews to touch on domestic issues.
In a taped interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Obama said he is set to convene a summit of influential economic advisers, including billionaire financier Warren Buffett, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker.
And Obama said in an interview with the Associated Press that he has succeeded in expanding the electoral map in his race against McCain, principally in southern and southwestern states but also in Montana and North Dakota. "It doesn't mean we're going to win all those states but at least we're making it a contest and giving voters something to choose from," he said aboard his campaign jet on his return trip to the United States.
During yesterday's session, Obama said he was pleased with his trip, though he acknowledged that it does not make him a foreign policy expert.
"I don't think that you ever stop learning," he said. Yet the world leaders he met, Obama said, "feel confident that I know what I'm talking about and what I'm doing" despite his inexperience on the world stage.
Nevertheless, the next president must "make certain that we project ourselves on the world stage with a sense of humility, a sense that we are listening to others," Obama said. America, he added, has been "very clear about our own interests, but not so clear about other people's interests."
Obama sought to link domestic headaches with urgent world problems. While he praised Congress for passing a bill helping homeowners who are facing foreclosure on their homes, he noted, the war has drained money that could have gone to help deal with spiraling gas prices, a faltering US economy, and climate change.
"We can't keep spending $10 billion a month in Iraq at a time when we've got enormous pressing needs here in the United States of America - including, by the way, taking care of veterans who are coming home with post-traumatic stress disorder, disabilities, and they are still not getting a lot of the services that they need," Obama said.
In a question-and-answer session, Obama said he believes Native Americans deserve more help improving their lives instead of an apology for past atrocities committed by the US government.
He also rejected allegations that his sharp defense against rumors about his faith has offended Muslims. "If you were a Muslim and somebody consistently said you were a Christian, I suspect that you would want to have that corrected, because that's offensive to your faith," Obama said. 