Walking back to my trailer with my breakfast, it struck me strange that the consequences of change in our leadership are as profound here in Iraq as in America. Iraq is a land eight hours ahead of the American east coast. A distant land. A mysterious, complicated land. A land that most of us, including me, know little or nothing about. Has any other society in history ever had the political and cultural reach that we do? We're almost casual about it aren't we, like that's normal? Living abroad brings questions like this home to roost.

During the presidential campaign that got us to this moment, one of the most important events for me was Obama's speech in Berlin. I was moved by the size and intensity of the German reaction and hoped other Americans would see how important our choice is on the global stage. As I watched the speech from a hotel room in Jordan, I wondered, is there anywhere on Earth where Obama wouldn't have received the same reaction? My guess is no, nowhere. Because the world knows better than we do how important our choices are as a nation. In many ways I think the world may know America better than Americans know America. Foreigners, any foreigners, as a rule, know our history and culture far better than we know theirs. Much of what I now understand about America has actually come through foreigners. So what were the Germans reacting to? Was it this young, talented speaker who embodied the highest ideals? Or was it desperation to push Bush off the world stage? America looks very different from a far. It's much more beautiful from abroad, much more interesting and sometimes much more confusing.

I've been out of the country for five of Bush's eight years and I think one of the strangest things to come from this era is the use of the term 'Homeland'. I feel more American abroad than I do in America. What's 'Homeland' got to do with my national identity? It is a play on national identity right? It puzzled me when it first started to pop up in Bush's speeches. Homeland? Is that like the German 'Fatherland' or the Russian 'Motherland'? I thought Americans were a transient, flexible people? A nation of immigrants right? I've never heard anyone anywhere use the term in the context of our national identity before. Did Mark Twain ever refer to the 'Homeland'? Springsteen wrote songs about his hometown, but that's a different meme all together. Where did that come from? Is that us? I thought it was our ideas that define us?

Big ideas. Big ideas that have nothing to do with where you're from our what you look like. Ideas like, "We the people" and "All men are created equal" the stuff we get in our bones as kids. The stuff that makes us pound our fists on tables when we're pissed off and talk about our rights. We mean it! In how many countries in the world do you think you can say that kind of stuff, and MEAN IT? You think you can tell a cop in Russia your lawyer is gonna kick his ass in court and MEAN IT? What does the 'Homeland' have to do with me? I don't even know where that is. Is Hawaii part of the 'Homeland'? What about Puerto Rico?

If we must live on with the term, I hope Americans can envision a homeland well beyond the physically boundaries of North America, well beyond George Bush's 'Homeland', because that's also where our ideas live and are cherished. That's why the moral damage done in the last eight years is so serious, because it attacked what many of us feel are our foundations. Our bones! If I have a homeland it's in those ideals. The whole world knows them and the whole world respects them, perhaps even more than we do. Certainly more than we have during these last eight years. Those two Airman were right, Obama has a lot to deal with. But, I for one, think our moral capital is our greatest capital. We have little control of the global economy, but our reputation for statesmanship and justice can be repaired. Must be repaired. And that, about all else, is why I'm happy. I believe this new administration understands that.

George Bush's picture will come down from the wall of the chow hall tomorrow. I'm thankful for that. He was a man who tried to dupe us with, among other things, a nationalist' bag of tricks. He was a man whose vision of America was limited to geographical borders and our ability to project military might. He humiliated the things that most truly define us in defense of a fabricated place grown out of flawed, intolerant minds.

Today is a new day in America, in Iraq, in Germany and for everyone anywhere who holds the basic freedoms dear. We are one nation, one people no matter where we live.

To my generation, we are saying goodbye to our Nixon. This is a time for great jubilance. Congratulations, I wish I could be there with you, but we are united through the same high ideals that our new leader embodies nonetheless. I am swollen with pride for my country. Iraq has been a very painful point of view to see America from. But today, the view of America from afar, especially from Iraq, is stunning.

From last July in Berlin. One of my favorite moments is at 1:40 when he mentions Kenya: