The world leaders nodded their heads up and down while looking at each other as the Venezuelan president described his American counterpart as lunatic that thinks he owns the world. The signs of all that the US has lost in respect, diplomacy and world influence were tragically visible, though the US media failed to report them.

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Some world leaders, for an unknown reason, decided it is in their best interest to use the twenty minutes they are entitled to bash the US policy.

Other leaders were very happy to see somebody else doing it; they applauded and laughed at George W Bush called devil.

They shook their heads up and down while looking at each other as the Venezuelan president described his American counterpart as a lunatic that thinks he owns the world.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5365142.stm

I do not remember the last time these dignitaries looked as happy, I could not recall the last time I heard such enthusiastic applaud.

"We will not dignify the remarks by responding", our high-level government representatives sometimes used a longer or shorter version but the meaning is the same.

The Democratic Party, desperate to win the mid-term election, has to calculate every single move. The risks of saying nothing versus saying something, even if it means nothing, is tremendous.

After what I am sure is a good internal debate within the Party, they came up with the most ridiculous statements I ever heard, something along the lines of "We know he is lunatic, but only we can say it!"

In all cases, the Republicans would have the opportunity to betray Democrats as wimps.

The mainstream media have some sound bites to chew on, and everybody is happy!

This is not the dialogue of a farce comedy off Broadway; it is a very accurate description of the debates in the United Nations General Assembly, which concluded its first week with many fireworks, headlines, angry quotes and funny ones. http://www.un.org/webcast/ga/61/gastatement21.shtml

The General Assembly is a two-week long event (19-29 September) attended by many of the world leaders, an unusual equalizer where small and large, nuclear and none nuclear, rich and poor, permanent and temporary members are allocated the same amount of time and the right to address the world.

These leaders under the bright lights, in front of the microphones, are usually cautious.

They understand perfectly well that after the press conferences are over, and the endless interest evaporates, they will have to go back home to real people, real problems and maybe the highlight of the next eleven months will be a meeting with the ambassador of one of the five permanent members in the security council.

They understand and this is why they are accustomed to be politically correct.

This year was very different. The anti-American tone did not come only from America's rivals like Iran and Venezuela, but also a host of more moderate nations-- a trend underscoring the United States' troubled image in the world.

One speaker after another described a world gone wrong _ unparalleled turmoil in the Middle East, a wider gap between rich and poor, anxiety about human rights abuses. While often the U.S. is not mentioned, the reference is clear.

We might think Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is a nutcase; we can convince ourselves Ahmadinejad of Iran is an extremist, but what about the remarks from presidents of Lebanon, Angola, Bolivia, Brazil, Sudan, Palestine and many more?

The most concerning phenomenon is in the process of minimizing the source of the critique to be able to discount it, and insuring our comments play well to the domestic audience, almost nobody is trying to analyze the change.

Why doesn't the whole world see with us eye to eye?

The United Nation and the world clearly lost leadership, when US lost its ability to lead.

We are still the strongest nation in the history of humankind. Our economy represents a fifth of the worlds economy.

We have all the qualifications to lead the world, but we cannot any more even when we are rallying the world behind a good cause like fighting the genocide in Darfur http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/darfur_conflict.

Where did we go wrong?

The world knows, we did not find WMD, and instead of apologizing we keep finding new excuses, such as the world is a better place without Sadam.

The world can see clearly that Iraq, after three years, is a land where the only freedom is the freedom to die, and the only democracy is the one behind the walls of the green zone.

The world understands that Afghanistan is falling back in the hands of Taliban, while we are taking photo ops with the government that does not control the land and the president that uses American security personnel to insure his safety.

The world does not accept that our government treats the killing of hundreds of Lebanese children as collateral damage, while the injury of a single Israeli child is an act of terror.

The world is sick of us teaching everybody about Human rights while the pictures of Abu-Ghraib and Guantanamo are vivid in everybody's eyes.

The world listened to the president of Pakistan telling the story of an American official threatening to take a country into the Stone Age if it does not cooperate. I even imagine that many of these smiling faces in the crowd might have a similar story or two.

Our foreign policy demands the world to adhere to International laws, while we are threatening other countries. Using double standards, and negotiating the relevance of the Geneva Convention when it applies to America.

Leadership is not a right. It is a vision and we do not have it.

It is the strength to recognize your mistakes and correct them.

It is the ability to help, to support, to improve the lives of others.

The leadership belongs to an America that does not exist in the eyes of the world anymore and unless we learn from our mistakes, some other country might fill the vacuum soon.

Do I hear China?

Authors Bio:
I am an Egyptian American born in Alexandria. I immigrated to the US in the late eighties, during this time lived in many places in US and Europe. I work as an IT manager and love it. I love to travel, it makes me feel young, and it awakes in me sense of adventure and curiosity. I love knowing people from different cultures; it never fails to amaze me how we all live in our little worlds that never meet. History is my second amazement, it always differ depending on who is winning, that leads me to my third hobby, politics is it history or human nature that is the culprit?