Giving peace a chance

Compare and contrast--

President Obama addressing American troops in Baghdad--
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30095474#30095474

I don't really need to search for the images of George W. Bush talking to our troops. You've seen them. American military people respect authority and the Commander-in-Chief.

President Obama is received with enthusiasm around the world, by our military and by people in other countries, even those who have come to hate Americans, because he is our hope for opening communication that will lead to alternatives to violence for solving the world's problems.

Just as a good surgeon knows that less invasive alternatives to surgery should be the first line of action, professional military people know that war should be a last resort, war is not a game or a sport. Real lives are forever changed or lost--those of American solders, of enemy combatants, of millions of civilians.

The kind of respect that President Obama shows for all of the world's citizens and nations creates in many of us the hope that peace may break out in ways that can save the planet and humanity.