In case you haven’t heard, your President is not perfect. We focus on the missteps and the failures in order to hold our elected officials accountable, but sometimes we need to appreciate what we have while we have it. This isn’t just a good approach to life, it’s vital if we want to bring about real change.
In a joint OpEd on Monday, President Obama and President Hollande called for a global agreement to address carbon emissions, but they also wrote about how their deepening partnership offers a model for international cooperation.
Barack Obama and François Hollande’s OpEd was published Washington Post and in Le Monde, and reads in part (emphasis mine):
Rooted in a friendship stretching back more than two centuries, our deepening partnership offers a model for international cooperation. Transnational challenges cannot be met by any one nation alone. More nations must step forward and share the burden and costs of leadership. More nations must meet their responsibilities for upholding global security and peace and advancing freedom and human rights.
Building on the first-step agreement with Iran, we are united with our “P5+1” partners — Britain, Germany, Russia and China — and the E.U. and will meet next week in Vienna to begin discussions aimed at achieving a comprehensive solution that prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. In Syria, our credible threat of force paved the way for the plan to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons; now, Syria must meet its obligations. With the Syrian civil war threatening the stability of the region, including Lebanon, the international community must step up its efforts to care for the Syrian people, strengthen the moderate Syrian opposition, and work through the Geneva II process toward a political transition that delivers the Syrian people from dictatorship and terrorism.
Perhaps nowhere is our new partnership on more vivid display than in Africa. In Mali, French and African Union forces — with U.S. logistical and information support — have pushed back al-Qaeda-linked insurgents, allowing the people of Mali to pursue a democratic future. Across the Sahel, we are partnering with countries to prevent al-Qaeda from gaining new footholds. In the Central African Republic, French and African Union soldiers — backed by American airlift and support — are working to stem violence and create space for dialogue, reconciliation and swift progress to transitional elections.
These two world leaders are calling for cooperation. They are discussing, with other nations, ways to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. This is a pivotal moment, especially if you are one of those who were horrified by the lead up to the Iraq war. This is an example of how leaders can work together to avoid making those kinds of mistakes and to set the stage for a cooperative paradigm, backed up by the power to take action if necessary. Cooperation is the opposite of the power-over paradigm embraced by war mongers. It is the death knell of the war monger model.
Neither of these leaders is perfect. Our world is far from perfect. But this kind of leadership is worlds away from being sold WMD, Iraq to blame for 9/11, and terror alert levels. This is change we can believe in. This is the only way to progress real change toward a more peaceful world, to advance human rights, and to bring more nations to the table with a voice.
This is a rejection of the power-over model of leadership, and while we may not know it when it’s happening, we are only too aware of it when we are living under a power-over/under paradigm. The absence of an illegal invasion is not nearly so noticeable as the invasion. But it matters. It needs to be noticed.
One day there will be another Republican war mongering cowboy in the White House, and we will all look back on these moments with nostalgia. Can you imagine Bush, Romney, Christie or Huckabee calling for cooperation and discussion, especially under the kind of relentless pressure Republicans have been mounting to push for war with Iran?
This kind of cooperative model is a good reminder of why people need to vote in 2014. It demonstrates why voting matters, even though no one is perfect. And it demonstrates that real change is incremental, but it can happen.
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