Viktoria Zhavoronkova, Trend European Service commentator:
Americans are facing a difficult crossroad. To representative of which party will they entrust the future of the United States and probably of the entire world for the next several years? Who will be the next President?
The world is concerned about United States' further policy to be pursued after election of a new head of the White House. Democrat Obama promises to negotiate, while Republican McCain promises a struggle "against aggression and trample of international laws".
In contrast to Republicans, Obama and the entire Democratic Party is now associated with peace. However, a plenty of contradictions will appear if we analyze U.S. Presidents beginning from 1945 in terms of their party membership.
Democrats are not as peaceful as they seem to be at the moment. In the period since the middle of the last century when Democrats were governing the country, many military conflicts were unleashed and many military operations were held.
For instance, Democrat Harry Truman ordered to drop nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which was a great tragedy for the Japanese nation and entailed a death toll of thousands people during the explosions and during a long period after them due to radiation sickness.
Erection of the Berlin Wall and the Caribbean Crisis took place during Democrats ruling. John Kennedy was the then President of the United States. The Caribbean Crisis lasted for 38 days, keeping the mankind afraid of self-destruction threat.
The Vietnam War commenced during the presidency of another Democrat Lyndon Johnson. The war entailed a great number of victims, left a noticeable sign in culture and took a significant place in the Newest History. The last distinguished Democrat is Bill Clinton. Belgrade bombings initiated by Clinton are still fresh in memory. About 2,000 people died.
Republicans were also raging wars, but less. The first was the Persian Gulf War. The first broke out during senior George Bush's presidency. This was one the large-scale military conflicts that 20th witnessed. And, at last, the war that broke out in Iraq during junior George Bush.
The CIA information about reserves of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which was not confirmed in the long run, served a casus belli for a war in Iraq. The results was the victims of war in large numbers, overthrow of Saddam Hussein regime and presence of US forces in Iraq up to day.
The major problems can that appear after election of new US president is the further aggravation of relations with Russia that were hurt during latest developments in Georgia and launch of military operations in Iran.
This is the key moment of disputes between US presidential candidates McCain and Obama.
Barack Obama believes Iran poses "great threat" for world and he is a proponent of toughening sanctions against him, but not military operations.
On the contrary, McCain is a proponent of radical punishment for "terrorists" and nuclear threat for world.
Candidate from Democrats Obama promised to pull out forces from Iraq immediately in case he wins elections. The republican McCain said the plans of a senator from Illinois will lead to defeat in a war and added he will maintain military presence of Americans in Iraq until the final victory if he is elected.
Concerning US-Moscow relations, the positions of presidential candidates differ. Obama condemns Russia's action in South Ossetia, despite everything, he commends talks with Moscow. On the contrary, McCain supported expulsion of Russia from international organizations, for instance, G8.
One must not forget that McCain is the successor of Bush and will probably continue his both foreign and domestic political line. This political line has a number of flaws as the experience of last years showed.
Whoever becomes new head of White House, Obama or McCain, we will hope that a common sense will take a lead over ardent heads and will prevent military conflicts.
The correspondent can be contacted at [email protected]