President Obama will be traveling to the Middle East this week to give a speech to the Muslim world from Egypt, designed to change the relationship between the Islamic world and the United States.Â
He is also going to visit a Nazi concentration camp in Germany (Buchenwald), and commemorate the D Day Invasion 65 years ago, which was the beginning of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
These are important moments, as Obama wishes to promote constructive relations with the Islamic world as a result of the interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, the concerns about the Taliban’s growing power in Pakistan, the threat of Iran developing nuclear weapons, and the ever present Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Â
In the midst of this, we cannot forget the sacrifices of World War II veterans who are rapidly dying off after 65 years since their sacrifices at Normandy, and the constant reminder of the Holocaust represented by Hitler’s Final Solution, which is still a reminder of the need to protect Israel’s interests with a hostile neighborhood always the reality.
The challenges to Obama in international affairs will be closely watched, and this trip is therefore of great significance. It will, in many ways, set the tone for the rest of the Obama Administration, whether four or eight years in duration.
I will comment on his trip when I return from my own trip to the city of Boston and its nearby environs, an area so significant in the creation of our nation and continuing to take the lead in so many ways in modern American history and politics!