The US presidential election is drawing near and the debates between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have begun. A lot of people are hard-pressed to select the one to vote for on Nov 8 as both have their own fortes and faults.

From the American point of view what Trump stands for is right and necessary. He has promised to bring back jobs to the US which it has lost to China and other countries. The vast ‘Rust Belt’ of the Midwest is a clear indication that government intervention and protection in the economy is right and the US needs to be protected from unfair trade deals, especially with China.

Trump has promised to reassert US supremacy in the economic sphere by reviewing its trade deals with the outside world. This focus on protectionism is winning him votes especially from the middle class, the poor and the unemployed from various parts of the US.

His argument that South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and the European members of Nato should pay for part of the defence budget is correct and fair as these nations are prosperous and should share the burden.One can understand Trump better if one sees him from a US point of view. He is focused on the well being of the US citizens first and the world next, as the US has lost many of the advantages it had in the last few decades .

One should view Trump’s remarks on migration, crime and others in this aspect as he places much weight on the economic health and security of US citizens and the supremacy of the US in the world. Trump’s wish to have a close relationship with Vladimir Putin could lead to a resolution of the Syrian civil war and bring peace to a long-suffering people.

Clinton, on the other hand, is keen on a continuation of President Barack Obama’s domestic and foreign policies.She has often criticised Trump for lack of experience and exposure ,which she claims she has in foreign affairs. However, her accusations can be refuted if one reviews her tenure as the secretary of state during the first term of President Obama.

It was at this time that the Arab Spring broke out. It was an uprising of the Arab people against their dictatorial rulers and the US which always said that it champions the cause of democracy in the Arab world was caught unprepared, and Clinton had no plans or vision to help the freedom-seeking people.

The result was that the region went back to its despotic ways and the entire region did not become democratic but ‘demochaotic’ and this situation prevails to this day.The US ambassador to Libya was killed, an incident that shocked the American people and Clinton was criticised severely for this episode.

In Libya and Yemen the US could not do much as rival governments continued to fight one another. In Syria the situation has become a nightmare with more than 300,000 killed and millions displaced as refugees and various militant and extremists factions like the IS causing untold misery to the people. Despite all these happenings, the US could only be a bystander. This is the legacy of Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.

Next was the Iranian nuclear issue in which she had sided with Israel too much to the extent that she could not bring the Iranians to a compromise. John Kerry succeeded where she failed and the Iranian issue was settled, failing which a new conflagration in the volatile Middle East could have made matters worse.

Hands-on experience

When one reflects on Clinton’s term as secretary of state it appears that she only wanted some hands-on experience in foreign affairs for her presidential campaign, which she did not get as the first lady.

Additionally, her decision to store her emails in her private server while she was secretary of state exposed confidential and classified information to hackers. This secret information could have been easily hacked as one can see the havoc the expert hackers are causing in the cyber world.

It is really unbelievable that other than criticisms of her, nothing has come out of this episode. One needs to compare this with the way the US is hounding both Edward Snowden and Julian Assange for leaking classified information.The US State Department today has to grapple with a wide range of issues emanating from an unstable world order and some of them can be traced back to Clinton’s term as secretary of state.

Lastly, with the present threatening and unstable global order - ranging from the simmering Middle East and the Islamic world,the South China Sea crisis ,the Ukranian issue , the tension between the US and Russia, the belligerence of North Korea, the rising tension between India and Pakistan, the Syrian civil war and the refugee crisis, the rise of IS, jihadists and militant groups engaging in international terrorism as well as economic uncertainties caused by Brexit and the economic slowdown in a large number of countries - when the US needs a leader with strong and resourceful qualities one wonders whether this is the right time to have a female US president who will also double as commander-in-chief.