*By Joel Hilliker(Pictured ),Columnist
The whole world doesn’t agree on much, but it seems pretty united on one thing: that the next American president should be Barack Obama.
Set aside your own persuasion on who should win the November 4 election for a moment. Look at the situation from higher up. This global Obama-love is significant for a couple of reasons.
The Economist online has set up what it calls a “Global Electoral College”—a chance for its readers worldwide to vote using a globalized version of America’s electoral college system. There the McCain-Palin ticket actually has received 270 electoral votes—the number required to win in America. Trouble is, it has been absolutely crushed by Obama-Biden’s 9,120 electoral votes.
A Washington Post reporter took an informal survey around the halls of the United Nations: Obama or McCain? The overwhelming favorite: Obama, Obama, Obama. “I have not heard a single person who will support McCain,” said an African UN official. “If they do, they are in hiding.” The reporter, Colum Lynch, concluded, “[I]t might be difficult to find a sliver of territory in the United States more enthusiastic over the prospect of the Illinois senator winning” than in the global microcosm of the UN.
Amir Taheri wrote in yesterday’s New York Post of seeing “Obama! Inshallah!”—or Obama! Allah willing!—written on walls in the Gaza Strip. “While Obama has tried to push his origins into the background, his ‘Islamic roots’ have won him a place in many Arabs’ hearts,” he wrote.
Congo’s UN ambassador, Atoki Ileka, says the same about the candidate’s African roots, since Obama’s father is from Kenya: “We do not consider him an African American. We consider him an African.” Makadem, the Kenyan reggae singer who wrote the messianic anthem “Obama Be Thy Name,” evidently feels the same.
Some of the candidate’s worldwide supporters are doing more than just hoping for him to win—they’re actively funding his campaign (which is, of course, illegal). As Ron Fraser recently wrote, the Federal Election Commission has reported 11,500 foreign contributions to the Obama campaign totaling $33.8 million.
Why such overwhelming worldwide support for Obama? A common cheer among his supporters is that he represents a friendlier face to the world than both his predecessor and his opponent, and will restore America’s reputation and status as a beloved global power. By this logic, all these nations are excited about an Obama presidency because of their eagerness to restore the friendships with America that have been so ravaged by the Bush administration.
Before we accept that view, it is worth noting that among the nations most enthusiastic in their support for Obama are some of America’s worst enemies.
Take, as an example, some of his enthusiasts in the Arab world. “Obama especially appeals to pan-Arab nationalists angry at the United States for having ousted Saddam Hussein,” Amir Taheri explains. “Obama’s promise to leave Iraq gives pan-Arabs their only chance (albeit slim) to destroy the new Iraqi democracy.” Incidentally, among the millions in donations to Obama’s campaign were monies originating from Fallujah in Iraq.
Iran was also the source of some of Obama’s campaign money. It’s not difficult to see how the Iranian mullahs would prefer a U.S. president who calls himself the only major candidate who “supports tough, direct, presidential diplomacy with Iran without preconditions.” And not because of their sincere desire to make peace with America.
“Also enthusiastic for Obama is the Lebanese Hezbollah,” Taheri continued. “The party’s No. 2, Sheik Naim al-Kassim, went as far as inviting Americans to vote Obama as a step toward peace with Islam.” What sort of “peace with Islam” do you suppose Kassim is interested in? He belongs to an organization that, according to its founding document, “regard[s] all negotiators as enemies.”
Obama has received notable if unwanted endorsements from North Korea’s Kim Jong Il, Cuba’s Fidel Castro, and Hamas adviser Ahmed Yousef. Libyan leader Muammar Ghadafi has told Obama “to be proud of himself as a black and feel that all Africa is behind him.”
Why would such demagogues and terrorists support Obama? You can be sure they’re not interested in a stronger America.
The undeniable truth is, fervent anti-Americanism infects much of the planet, and a great many people support this man because they view his policies as being favorable toward America’s enemies. The large part of the world that wants to level the global playing field by knocking America down a peg appears to see an opportunity in an Obama presidency. And as Ryan Mauro recently detailed in Global Politician, this man’s ideas on foreign policy provide those enemies plenty of cause to justify their enthusiasm.
That reality alone undermines the hope held by so many for a more peaceful world because of the political ascension of a multiracial man in the world’s most prominent nation. As his own running mate famously said recently, someone, somewhere, is bound to ignite an international crisis in order to test Barack Obama’s mettle. Things could get ugly very quickly.
But there is also a more immediate problem in the fact that global opinion, like the American media, has virtually crowned Obama with a victory already. Given the near-universal desire to see this man take up residency in the White House, we have to ask: What would it do to America’s reputation abroad should the McCain-Palin ticket manage to win?
Four years ago, the world was rooting for John Kerry. When George W. Bush won, France’s Le Monde wrote an editorial titled, “Why?” The UK’s Daily Mirror headline was, “How can 59,054,087 people be so dumb?” “This once-great country has pulled up its drawbridge for another four years and … has shown itself to be a fearful, backward-looking and very small nation,” it wrote.
That was after a John Kerry loss.
One American UN official, who says “I keep my mouth shut” about his support for McCain, said this: “It will be devastating if Obama loses. There has been such an amount of faith placed on the outcome.”
What kind of global backlash will we see if McCain pulls this election off? Within the U.S. itself, the narrative being incessantly hammered is that the only obstacle in the way of an Obama landslide is America’s racism. In the event of an Obama loss, it is not difficult to imagine a worldwide surge not only in disappointment but also in already high levels of bitterness, hostility and anger toward America.
Not exactly what you need when you’re vulnerable economically and trillions of dollars in debt to other nations.
The Trumpet does not take sides in political elections. We believe the biblical truth that “the powers that be are ordained of God,” and that “the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men” (Romans 13:1; Daniel 4:17). We are far less interested in who, specifically, wins elections than in how current events fulfill biblical prophecy. And one of the most important prophecies we are watching unfold is the rapid decline of America’s global power—exactly as Scripture said would happen. You can read all about this in Herbert W. Armstrong’s book The United States and Britain in Prophecy, the first version of which he wrote, astonishingly, over 70 years ago.
Whoever wins next week, the American era is ending. Whether there is a short-lived warming toward the U.S. or not, nations around the world will continue to scramble to gain power at America’s expense. The identity of the next American president may cause them to change their tactics, but not their goal.
Courtesy :www.theTrumpet.com ( published :October 29, 2008 )
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