Obama the fight will go on but a break from the recent past

Jonathon Freedland puts his own perspective on Barcak Obama in his Gaurdian piece this morning.

Whilst revelling in the new world affair's strategy that his election will bring to the White House he urges caution

liberals and anti-war types should not declare the new president a kindred spirit too hastily

And furthermore

As Obama himself said in the now famous 2002 speech denouncing the Iraq adventure: "I am not opposed to all wars." It's true that he avoids the phrase "war on terror". But that is not because he thinks there is no war to be fought. His disagreement with Bush was that the latter had failed to define America's enemy clearly. It was not an abstract noun - terror - but a specific organisation with a specific leader, namely al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden. Indeed, one of Obama's central critiques of the 2003 invasion of Iraq was that it diverted attention and resources from the true fight - against the men who had actually attacked the US on September 11 2001.