No candidate would stand any chance of being elected as US President without being a hawk on national security, pro-Israel, anti Arab and vowing to continue the “War on Terror”. Other candidates who have radically different policies don’t even get a look in. How many of these candidates are you aware of and how many interviews have you seen with Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party, Ralph Nader the Independent candidate, Bob Barr of the Libertarian Party or Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party? None I expect. Several of them would have policies that you would agree to a much greater extent than either McCain or Obama, yet you don’t give them any attention because they get very little coverage on the mainstream media either side of the Atlantic.
The mountain Obama has to climb is enormous. Even with a financial meltdown weeks before the vote with the incumbent Republicans to blame, and even with foreign policy little different from the Republicans, and even spending several times more on their campaign than the Republicans, the Democrats are still expected to win by only a small margin.

So wishing Obama wasn’t hawkish is really wishing him to lose, because that is what he would do if he told the truth of how America’s foreign adventures since the Second World War have been a military, economic and cultural disaster. As film maker Michael Moore put it, we can only hope that Obama will not keep his foreign policy election promises.

Isn’t it a sad day when we have to console ourselves with the hope that our preferred candidate is lying, while being fearful of his hawkish opponent who is probably telling the truth.