@David: i do believe that Obama will in fact close down Guantanamo. To ensure a Guantanamo-free future, he should strive to acknowledge the Hague international court and get investigations into the whole extralegal renditions thingie..

I do acknowledge the efforts done by the Obama supporters and think that it was some great victory for them and hopefully also for the US. We already once had a discussion about “why Obama and not – say – Ron Raul”. I think we mostly differ in the perspective. I’m mostly interested in the foreign policies of the future president and hope for a more just and less rampaging USA, while you (and other Americans for sure) are more concerned about the national policies (i.e. financing the next meal, healthcare etc..).

Thanks for your views anyway.

Barack Obama was on national television last night and repeated that he would shut down Guantanamo and end the practice of torture for good (video at CBS News). Obama will not take office until Jan. 20, 2009, so it bothers me that some on the German left are already calling him a warmonger – no different from George W. Bush.

In my blog post I cited Marina Achenbach’s piece in Freitag, because she acknowledge the grassroots movement that won the election last week. There were literally over a million of us who knocked on doors, made thousands of phone calls, wrote letters and op/ed pieces for newspapers, and, yes, even wrote on blogs. Our opponents once again tried to use fear – painting our candidate as a Marxist Muslim with ties to terrorism – to sway the voters, but this time they fell far short. We were committed to Barack Obama because of his opposition to the Iraq War. Now we are in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and we will work with the Obama administration in uniting the country around a progressive agenda for helping average Americans through this difficult period. We welcome any support from our friends in Europe; it is too bad that there are some on the German left who continue to demonize America and refuse to acknowledge what we have been able to achieve.

- Emanuel has no business, or in deed any interest, in denying the intention towards a pro-Israeli stance. This has long been the stance of the U.S., and it is one that will only strengthen should the Likud party regain power in Israel. Moreover, he is only following Obama’s example by apologizing for something another said- Reverend Wright, anybody?

-Obama will make it his business to renew efforts in Afghanistan for the simple reason that Americans demand closure or, to be blunt, vengeance. His involving of other nations, from his point of view, may or may not be necessary but it could ensure success. Race is not the issue here, however, as Europeans might follow on a platform of meeting international terrorism head-on. The Arabs, well, might do so as to distance themselves from fundementalism…

-Obama has publically stated that he might use his executive powers to give due process to all Guantanamo detainees, and he has also hinted that he wants it closed. Whether he follows up on that is another story