As a first generation American, I have never allowed my father's Lebanese and Arab ethnicity to influence my political views as an American. This has changed, however, in this election. Sen. Barack Obama, whose father was Kenyan, simply has a misguided foreign policy in the Middle East. While most Americans will agree that going into Iraq was a mistake, life is once again returning to normal in the streets of Baghdad. In the last eight years, democratic governments have been institutionalized in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, and a respect for human rights has emerged in American allies in the region, including Egypt and Jordan.
Obama would have abandoned the people of Iraq and the Arab world to face the continued politics of oppression and death. His opposition to the troop surge, despite its clear success in Iraq, shows how naive he is on understanding the Arab world. His desire to talk to Iran, a regime that denies the Holocaust, continues to develop weapons of mass destruction and sponsored numerous terrorist attacks against the United States will compromise what the United States stands for.
On Nov. 4, I'm voting for Sen. John McCain, because I owe it to my Lebanese heritage to ensure that the Republican Party's policy of promoting democracy and stability in the Arab world continues.
