Khaled Hosseini
Khaled Hosseini, bestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, was born in Afghanistan in 1965 and sought political asylum in the United States in 1980. A Bay Area resident since the 80’s, Khaled completed medical school and was a practicing internist between 1996 and 2004. In 2007 he started his foundation, The Khaled Hosseini Foundation to provide humanitarian assistance to the women and children of his homeland.

REASON 24: Obama demonstrated prudent and effective leadership in helping bring about the fall of Muammar Gadhafi.

President Obama showed nuanced, mature leadership through his handling of the Libyan uprising. He was faulted by conservatives for not taking a more decisive lead position, and many used his approach as so called evidence that the president did not truly believe in American exceptionalism. How could he, they argued, when he allowed British Prime Minister Cameron and French president Sarkozy to be the driving forces behind the decision to assist the uprising against Muammar Gadhafi? He was criticized for not doing enough.

But President Obama proceeded wisely, in allowing the U.S. to be a key player in a multi-national effort to support the rebels without committing to American air strikes or the deployment of American troops on the ground. He demonstrated his understanding that the world has changed. The U.S. can no longer afford to be the global policeman. It is neither wise nor necessary for America to carry the burden alone for other nations in order to play a leadership role. President Obama argued that the U.S. has allies who can be tremendous assets in times of international crises such as the Libyan uprising. He showed smart leadership by choosing to be part of a multilateral coalition, and helping bring about the desired objective of ousting a long-time dictator without sacrificing the life of a single American service member. It may not have been the bombastic show of leadership that some had hoped for—and for which those same people would have criticized him later, had the mission failed—but the President’s policy proved to be patient, wise, well thought-out, and effective, and one that will land him on the right side of history in this crisis. These are tremendous qualities that, I believe, should earn the president a second term in office.

—Khaled Hosseini
 San Jose, California

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