THANK YOU AMERICA

Since the start of the presidential election campaign I had some reservation on Barak Obama, especially on issues like Iraq. I was more of a Clinton supporter. But once Clinton was out of the picture , it became obvious whom I would rather see at the white house. Probably you would think that this is only because I’m an Iraq and electing a new president at the white house who would have a direct effect on my country and that is why I’m concerned. It is true to an extent. One morning as I was driving to work, had the radio on BBC Arabic. They had a talk show and they were receiving calls and comments from all over the Arab world reflecting on the American elections. One caller from Sudan, as I recall, said that it is gone be impossible for Obama to be elected. “ do you really believe that America is let a black man of a Muslim back ground be elected as its president” the guy said on the radio. “It is impossible” he added.

At that very particular moment I really wished that Obama would win just to prove to that Man in Sudan and the rest of the Arab world how wrong they could be, by making such prejudice remarks and judgments.

Through out the campaign, as the reports were talking about Obama’s double digits lead over the war veteran McCain, that caller from Sudan was always in the back of My mind. And when one day in the streets of Manhattan , during my visit to the US, I saw a black man who had to wait for 20 minutes to get a taxi and Taxi drivers refuses to stop for him just because he is black , and this is in 2008, that man from Sudan was in the back of my mind. Seeing that first hand shock my faith in all what America stands for. That is other what we, as Iraqis, have seen through out the past 8 Bush’s years on the white house.

On November 4^th, what was considered impossible by many, did happen. A black man called Barak Hussein Obama became the 44^th president of the United state of America. Every body agreed that it was a historical moment. It is not a historical moment Just because an African American man has been elected as a president of the United States. It is a historical moment because you Americans have given the whole world a valuable lesson in democracy and the power of the people’s will , when you all chanted “ yes we can” and proven that man from Sudan wrong . Your march to the polling centers did to democracy what no tanks, fleets or warplanes were able to do. It brought back faith in America as a super power and in democracy. So …Thank you America.