Obama wasted a big opportunity

US President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech certainly reflected the confidence of America as the world leader in terms of its economic, industrial, financial, military and natural resource strength. Obama implied in his speech that the world looks to America for leadership and after eulogising America, he went on to pass insulting remarks about Pakistan and Afghanistan. He did not care about the sensitivity of the millions of people living in these countries. Nevertheless, one would expect that the President of a country like the US should have balanced his observations, particularly while talking about other regions.

In recent times, there have been several unsavoury incidents in the US, including racial attacks and shooting in schools — perhaps Obama should have been honest enough to find fault with his own leadership rather than cracking down on others.

There are several ways of looking at America and its attitude and approach to world issues. The admirers of America argue that had it not been for the US, the world would have been a much more violent place and more conflicts would have taken place, thus upsetting the regional peace and putting millions of people in discomfort and suffering. The critics often say that the approach of the US government towards world issues have been entirely based on protecting its own national interest. Such critics think that with all the technological advancement and money that America has, it could have influenced the world in a much more productive and progressive manner.

The point is that any country that wants to be known and acknowledged as a world leader has to be concerned about the larger good of the world and not adopt policies purely on the basis of national interest. All said and done, Obama could have used his last State of the Union speech with a little more care and a longterm view, thus taking us to a new level, which is something that the world would have remembered for a long time. However, Obama appears to have lost an opportunity.

— The reader is an Indian founder trustee of an NGO based in Chennai, India