President Obama took a not-so-subtle shot at Republican nominee Donald Trump in Laos Wednesday, lamenting to a foreign audience that the USA will be “left behind” if America turns to isolationism instead of embracing Asian cultures.
Advertisement
“I’m proud to announce that an initiative that’s very important to me and to my wife Michelle, an initiative called Let Girls Learn, is coming to Laos and Nepal”, read a release of President Obama’s speech issued by The White House.
President Barack Obama says the United States focuses on improving human rights in other nations when he travels overseas because it has learned that if you don’t respect all people or religions, then it results in conflict.
He also drank a coconut on the banks of the Mekong in Luang Prabang and visited a Buddhist temple.
Some 20,000 people have been killed or wounded since the war ended, Obama said after viewing displays of small rusted grenades and photos of a child missing his foot.
Half a century ago, the U.S. turned Laos into history’s most heavily bombed country, dropping two million tons of ordnance in a covert, nine-year chapter of the Vietnam War.
Obama is telling young people at an event in Luang Prabang that he lived in Indonesia as a boy and his sister is half Indonesian.
U.S. President Barack Obama looks to audience members seating behind him on stage as he speaks during town hall with Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) at Souphanouvong University in Luang Prabang, Laos, Wednes.
The visit also served as a capstone to his effort to bolster relations with Southeast Asian countries long overlooked by the United States.
On this visit the first by a sitting American president Obama has placed a particular emphasis on trying to heal wounds inflicted by the secret war the US waged here as part of the broader Vietnam War. More bombs were dropped on the country than on Germany and Japan combined in World War II.
After Obama highlighted America’s rich heritage of multiculturalism, he pointed to the country’s racist tendencies as a result.
President Barack Obama says Americans can get “lazy” and insular, and he hopes his presidency has helped broaden their worldview.
Citing America’s size, wealth and laws that encourage women to take part in sport as contributing factors, Obama then turned to genetics.
He touted his administration’s move to double spending on ordnance clean-up to roughly 90 million dollars (£67 million) over three years.
“President Obama is giving Laos the highlight it needs”, Inthachith, 42, said, choking up with emotion.
Obama tours the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise visitor center in Vientiane.
Advertisement
Obama plans to meet with injured survivors and be briefed by center officials. It follows the $100 million the US has committed in the past 20 years.
