Obama rebuilding US international image?

On of the best analyses of Obama's Cairo speech that I have seen is in the Christian Science Monitor: Obama proclaims an end to Bush's regime-change doctrine

Washington - Tucked inside President Obama's 55-minute speech Thursday to the world's Muslims were four paragraphs that laid out his approach to democracy.

His message? America recognizes a universal yearning for the right to self-government, but regime change in democracy's name is over.

"No system of government can or should be imposed by one nation on any other," Mr. Obama said.

That premise distances the president from the controversial doctrines of the Bush administration and reestablishes a more traditional approach to encouraging democracy. Critics called it a a cheap crowd-pleaser that misrepresented the reasons the US invaded Iraq. ...

But others say Obama's statement carries the whiff of an apology for the Iraq invasion, which encourages an incorrect stereotype about US action under President Bush.


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