A business consultant and blogger based in Fremont, CA, Haq is part of a Pakistani-American community that is increasingly active in politics. Their homeland currently faces multiple threats to its stability and could not have more at stake in the American election.

Pakistan has an unpopular new president, a tanking economy, and is facing extremist suicide bombings that have spread to the nation's capital. Pakistanis are concerned about their relationship with their largest ally, the United States -- especially because this summer the Bush administration began authorizing drone aircraft bombings and ground incursions into Pakistan's border regions in pursuit of Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives.

The latest Predator bombing killed 20 people in the mountainous border region of North Waziristan, reported The New York Times this week. The policy is extremely unpopular in Pakistan and, for many Pakistani Americans, foreign policy toward Pakistan is a determining factor in their vote.

"Pakistanis are extremely sensitive now about the U.S. role there," said Haq. "The situation seems to be escalating dangerously right now. We talk about Iraq War -- I think this situation could get far worse very quickly. And it could actually become a regional war."

A registered Democrat who has never voted for a Republican presidential candidate, Haq is voting for John McCain because of his concerns about U.S. policy in his fragile homeland.

"McCain is handling the situation in Pakistan gently. He understands not to make open statements, and he has been around for a long time," Haq said. "To me, Obama is a novice like GW was back in 2000. And it's still an imperial Presidency so Obama can make mistakes as Bush has."

Pakistani American blogger and business consultant Riaz Haq.

The turning point for Haq was Obama's first major foreign policy speech, delivered in August, 2007, at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC, when he stated he would be willing to unilaterally bomb Pakistan to go after Al Qaeda.

"I was surprised that he came out of nowhere and made such a strong statement. No one else on the stage was as aggressive," Haq said. "I started to have reservations."

But despite the uproar over Obama's statements, Haq has not found much Pakistani-American company in the McCain camp. Most in his community are sticking with Obama.

"The statements that Obama is making disappoint Pakistanis," said Javed Ellahie, a Bay area attorney, "but they don't think it's any different than what would follow from anybody else. What Obama is saying is reflecting what the U.S. policy is anyway, he's just saying it publicly." Ellahie says that "even if McCain pretends like he's going to respect the sovereignty of Pakistan, Pakistanis would expect him to do whatever Bush is doing, because on every other thing he's followed Bush."

For Ellahie and the bulk of Pakistani Americans, their vote is based on strong support for Obama's domestic policy, despite their ambivalence about his statements on bombing inside Pakistan.

"From an American perspective, Pakistanis are looking at Obama as a better president," Ellahie said. "Pakistanis are not totally ethnocentric and they're not going to vote just because Obama is going to end up bombing Pakistan -- they're looking at the malaise in the economy in the United States, the war, everything else that has gone wrong in this country and we need a change."

"I'm a realtor, by trade, and I see people everyday losing their homes," said Shaista Aftab, who I met at a recent event at the Pakistani American Community Center in Fremont. "We need to work out [the situation] over here first before we go intervening in other people's politics."

As an ethnic community and political bloc, Pakistani Americans are not large in number, with estimates of their population in the U.S. ranging widely from 130,000 to 500,000. But, says Boston University public policy professor Adil Najam, there is a new trend in the politicization of that community since 9/11, one that has shifted priorities to domestic concerns rather than foreign policy toward Pakistan.

"Earlier, Pakistani-American politics was based on the concept of, 'What will this guy to do the country I left 30 years ago?' But now, it's about, 'What will this guy do to affect the country my children are growing up in?'" said Najam. The shift came about because of a sense of persecution and vulnerability amongst Pakistani Americans as their community came under suspicion because of their country of origin. The close scrutiny led to raids and deportations for those whose visa status was in question.

Shaista Aftab

"Everybody knows somebody who was deported," Najam said. "There is a fear that, 'It could happen to me.'"

Dr. Rafiq Rahman, a Kentucky-based doctor and one of the founders of the Pakistani American Leadership Center, PAL-C, in Washington DC is involved in the effort to make sure that his community has the ability to speak up for those who are patriotic Americans as well as proud Pakistanis.

"A lot of deportation happened and there was no public forum to say, 'Hey! This is wrong,'" says Dr. Rahman. "Post-9/11 we found out we had to be more active. If you're not involved in the political arena, nobody will listen. Now Pakistani Americans are more involved in local elections for eldermen and state senators."

Pakistani Americans came out strongly for Bush in 2000, so they have felt particularly let down by the previous eight years.

Professor Najam, who authored a book about Pakistani-Americans entitled Portrait of a Giving Community, said that it was unsurprising that before 9/11, Pakistani Americans voted Republican. They are an affluent group compromised largely of highly trained, well-paid professionals in medicine, industry, and engineering, he said, and they were anti-taxation and socially conservative.

Now, Najam says, the priorities have shifted. "What has changed is that after 9/11 things have come up that are more important than taxes and social values, things like human rights and civil liberties."

Pakistani Americans still hope to see whomever is elected use soft power in Pakistan -- diplomacy, development aid, and support for the civilian and judicial powers there -- rather than continuing the attacks that they say breed hatred for America back home.

The anti-American sentiment brewing in Pakistan contrasts sharply with the context that many Pakistani Americans grew up in, when the U.S. was using Pakistan and Pakistanis as proxy fighters against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

"When I was growing up we all looked to Americans -- we all wanted to be here," said Dr. Rahman. "I'm from Peshawar, a frontier province, and we were sending men to fight Khrushchev in Afghanistan. My father told me, 'We are doing this to help protect the free world.' That sentiment is gone from Pakistan now. What happened to that idealism?"

What does bring Dr. Rahman hope is that the Pakistani-American community is standing up to be counted here in the U.S. and hopefully can help to inform foreign policy in the future.

Many pollsters consider this group to be the key to November's election. Hispanics from Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia and Puerto Rico are moving into the area in droves along the State's I-4 corridor. This 132-mile highway cuts straight across Central Florida, connecting Tampa east to Daytona Beach. These immigrants lean Democrat but tend to be independent-minded about voting, a trait seen in previous elections.

"The I-4 corridor has really been the battleground for previous elections," said Republican Party strategist Angulated Aviles. "And seeing there is such an influx of Hispanics coming into the area, it's going to boil down to Hispanics in the I-4 corridor."

In 2000, Florida Latinos in Central Florida voted for Democratic Presidential nominee Al Gore. However, in the 2004 presidential contest, more than half cast their ballot for George Bush. Two years later, they delivered the vote to President Bush's brother Jeb in the Florida governor's race.

Whether it's because these voters are still learning the ropes of the U.S. political system or because they live within a Hispanic Republican culture, where most Hispanic elected officials in the region are Republican, their voter registration and behavior suggest many of them are still up for grabs, said Aviles.

"The Republicans did a heck of a job to convince us they were the right candidates in the previous election," said Fernando Negron, a political radio talk show host based in Orlando. Both Bush brothers spoke Spanish on the campaign trail and ran a flurry of Spanish language TV and radio ads.

"They bought the Hispanic vote with language," he said. But Negron, a registered independent, says the growing dissatisfaction among Central Florida Latinos with the country's direction and the economy will take more than a few words in "espanol" to win their vote. "We need some change in this country," says Negron. "People that pay $4 a gallon for gas, people that go to the supermarket, people that pay for a house, a mortgage. It has gone badly to the wrong side of the economic swing."

Negron's attitude reflects a recent Pew Hispanic Research Center nationwide survey, which shows Latinos favoring Democrat Barack Obama for president over Republican John McCain by 66 percent to 23 percent, with pocketbook issues as their top concern.

But in the complicated state of Florida, where Latinos make up around 12 percent of the electorate, recent polls show the margin is much more evenly split, giving McCain a slight lead among Hispanics. A Mason-Dixon poll released in early October showed McCain beating Obama 49 to 44 percent. A Zogby poll released last week shows the candidates in a dead heat.

Fernando Negron is a political radio talk show host based in Orlando.

A massive voter registration drive by the campaigns and nonpartisan groups may help the Democrats, who now have 68,000 more registered voters than Republicans, for the first time ever in Florida. In three of the highest Latino populated counties in Central Florida -- Hillsborough, Orange and Osceola -- Hispanic Democrats outnumber registered Hispanic Republicans by more than 2 to 1. And these three counties account for almost 19 percent of the state's overall Latino vote.

Meanwhile, Florida's Division of Elections reports another third of Florida's Hispanic voters are not registered with any major party. According to Thomas Eldon, who recently conducted a poll for The Miami Herald and The St. Petersburg Times, as much as seven percent of the overall Hispanic vote is undecided.

Dave Beattie, another pollster, puts the number of Hispanic undecided voters as high as 14 percent. The number is constantly in flux, which is one reason the campaigns are paying such close attention and trying to understand this demographic as the election nears.

While liberal on economic and fiscal policies, many of the area's Hispanics are more conservative when it comes their family and religious values, which is another issue at play in iwho they will vote for come November 4.

Damaris Soto, a Tampa-based real estate professional from the Dominican Republic, has voted Democrat in the past, but not this year. Even though Obama attends a Christian church, Soto has concerns about Obama's religious upbringing.

"He grew up Indonesian. He grew up in the Musulman countries and in this philosophy," she said. "That is the way that his mother brought him up. And he's very liberal." Soto says she is also concerned about Obama's level of experience. Still, she isn't sure that she will vote for McCain either. "I will decide in November," she said.

Damaris Soto is a Tampa-based real estate professional from the Dominican Republic.

Undecided voters like Soto have caused both campaigns to ramp up their outreach efforts to Hispanic voters throughout the state. The activities include strategic planning meetings, volunteer training, extensive mailings and door-to-door canvassing.

The candidates are also making frequent barnstorming stops in the area. Temo Figueroa, Obama's Latino Vote Director, said the campaign has dedicated an unprecedented $20 million to target Hispanics nationwide.

"A significant portion of that money will go to Florida because of the sheer numbers of Latino voters in the state," said Figueroa. Millions of dollars a week have also been spent on Spanish-language television and radio advertisements. New data released by a group at the University of Wisconsin, which is monitoring national campaign advertisements, show Obama is outspending McCain on television ads in Florida 3-to-1.

The Obama campaign has also set up a national headquarters in Tampa and has around 200 staffers and thousands of volunteers working in the state. Mario Diaz, the Southeast Regional Communications Director for McCain's campaign, said their candidate didn't need to spend as much on ads, because he already has a track record with Hispanics, particularly on issues of immigration, drug trafficking and foreign policy.

Until now, the polls in Florida suggest that could be true. But both candidates will continue appealing to Hispanics, particularly those in Central Florida, hoping to persuade this critical demographic to swing the state their way.

So it should be no surprise that the country's politicians exhibit the same flare when running for office. Brazilian law allows candidates to register under any name they choose -- as long as it's not offensive. In the past, "Lula," the nickname of the popular president, was taken by scores of politicians. This year, inspiration is coming from a politician a continent away: Barack Obama.

At least eight candidates across the country have chosen to identify themselves with the U.S. presidential hopeful. Using names that sound like welterweight champions, there is the "Brazilian Obama," and the "Obama of the Savannah." Outside of Rio, in the region known as the Baixada, or "Lowlands," there is Claudio Henrique, also known as the "Obama of the Baixada."

Hoping to become the first black mayor of his hometown of Belford Roxo, Henrique sees the senator from Illinois as an inspiration, who has been able to break boundaries and overcome obstacles -- many of which stand in Henrique's way.

Poverty, violence and corruption are the norm in Belford Roxo. It's beloved mayor and two city councilmen were assassinated in recent years. Streets are unpaved, and sanitation, health care and education are all lacking.

When Henrique began campaigning, asking residents to join him in a dream of a better city, his supporters started calling him their Barack Obama. The name stuck, and a campaign jingle followed -- set to the funky Rio beat. His popularity soared.

Crisscrossing town in a caravan of family and friends, Henrique meets and greets everyone in town. On the streets he is a crowd favorite, but as we see in the piece, when election day arrives in Brazil, Henrique finds even more obstacles to overcome in trying to make history in the Baixada.

-- Andrés Cediel

Joaquim criticized the United States for often making decisions that shape Haiti's political future, such as the forced removal of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004, which was carried out by American troops in coordination with the U.N.

He admitted that he didn't exactly know what an Obama presidency would mean for Haiti, but that people recognized its significance: "The fact that a black man, one of us, could become the leader of the United States, could only mean good things for us here," Joaquim said.

All over this troubled and impoverished Caribbean country, there are thousands of unemployed and eager young men like Joaquim who see themselves in the Democratic candidate, even as feelings of alienation are growing among the working-class poor.

Haiti's President Rene Preval came into power in 2006 on a wave of international support and hope. At first, many Haitians supported his plans to increase security and improve infrastructure with help from the U.N. and the U.S., which is Haiti's largest donor. This year alone, the Caribbean country will receive $750 million in international development aid -- about a third of which will come from the U.S.

But in the last two years, Preval's popularity has been on the wane -- a majority of Haitians consider him to be nonplussed by the country's growing poverty, and he's seen as too soft on corruption. Others say that Preval is simply happy to accept aid from the U.S. and Canada without questioning the efficacy of the development programs they support.

If there is support for the sitting president, it's that he's managed to reduce Haiti's gang and crime activity with the help of the U.N. And that's no small feat.

Security First

It's 9 am in early October and, alongside Joaquim, 200 men have come to the police barracks in Port-au-Prince to apply to become new officers. The job would pay them 15,000 Gourdes a month -- about $375 -- barely enough to cover living costs and the price of gas these days, which is a staggering $8 a gallon.

But the job has cachet: it would mean joining the new police force that's currently being trained by the United Nations; and it would mean young Haitians are taking an important role in achieving stability in their own country.

In 2004, shortly after President Aristide was ousted, the U.N. mission in Haiti created MINUSTAH, a stabilization force made up of troops from Central and South America, China, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and other U.N. member countries. MINUSTAH was designed to restore Haitian civil society and government institutions. Its most notable success so far has been to reduce kidnappings in Port-au-Prince and to disband many of the gangs that operated out of the capital's slums, in particular the notorious Cite Soleil.

In 2004, the U.N. mission in Haiti created MINUSTAH, a stabilization force made up of troops from Central and South America, China, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and other U.N. member countries.

But not everyone approves of MINUSTAH's plan for peace, security and police reform. Critics say the U.N. mandate mirrors that of its biggest donor, the United States. "If we just accept the dictate of MINUSTAH or the U.S. or Canada, we're going to hit a wall in about 5 or 10 years," said sociologist and former Defense Minister, Patrick Elie. Today, Elie simply refers to himself as an "activist" rallying for systemic change.

He believes the U.N.'s plan to revamp Haiti's police will work only in the short term, because this year's training budget of $120 million will become too costly for Haiti to support in the years to come. He says MINUSTAH's vision for security above all else comes at the expense of rebuilding infrastructure, relieving poverty and creating jobs.

"We don't need to address the question of security the same way the U.S. is doing in New York or in any other American city -- we've got to do it as Haitians, taking into account our culture and our history. Nobody -- not a new American president nor the U.N. mission here -- can tell us what the right answers ought to be for us in Haiti."

United States foreign policy has rarely enjoyed a positive reputation among Haitians. Many people remember recent and distant history: the 1915 U.S. invasion of Haiti followed by a 19-year occupation; the U.S. support for international trade embargoes' and its quiet endorsement of Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier in the early years of his dictatorship.

Despite the legacy between the two countries, there is palpable support for Obama. "The country [United States] has managed to go from being one of the most beloved in the world, to being the most hated," said Guy Leveille, an accountant who recently settled back in his native Port-au-Prince after living in the U.S. for more than 15 years. He feels Obama could change political relations. "The American people per se are not bad, but the political system is definitely broken," he said.

Young men from across Haiti come to Port-au-Prince's police barracks to apply to become new officers.

Leveille says that during 8 years of the Bush administration, Latin America was abandoned for U.S. interests in the Middle East. The shift affected the flow of substantive development and investment to Haiti. He believes an Obama presidency could breathe new life into the region. "I hope we can begin to see more investment and economic cooperation with the U.S.," he said.

In the streets of Port-au-Prince, and throughout the rest of the country, MINUSTAH's presence is felt day in and day out. There are more than 7,000 troops in the country, patrolling the main "hotspots" -- the border with the Dominican Republic, the ports, and the notorious slums such as Carrefour Feuilles and Cite Soleil. Some 900 officers from Sri Lanka are charged with keeping the peace in the sprawling slum of Martissant.

Interestingly, in an earlier report for FRONTLINE/World, Kate Seelye visited a town not far from the recent attack and tried to find out what the Syrian government was doing about the foreign fighters. Seelye's most recent reporting for FRONTLINE/World (shown in the video above) grew out of a trip to Syria in the summer of 2008 at a moment when President Bashar al-Assad was campaigning hard to reposition his country on the world stage.

* * *

I sensed a new confidence in the Syrian capital Damascus during my visit this summer. The pages of the many society magazines the city enjoys provided some context for the optimism. They featured lengthy photo spreads of Syrian president Bashar al Assad and his elegant British-born Syrian wife, Asma, on a visit to France being feted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Bastille Day.

In one picture, the first couple smiled radiantly at the cameras as they passed a French honor guard on their way to an official dinner. Their appearance in France was indeed a triumph. It was the Syrian president's first invitation abroad from a Western head of state since the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005. The visit prompted headlines like this one from The New York Times -- "Sarkozy Helps to Bring Syria Out of Isolation."

It had been a lonely three and a half years for the Assad regime after the Bush administration blamed Damascus for the Hariri killing, a charge Syrian officials have denied. In response to the assassination, Washington withdrew its ambassador from Damascus and cut off all high level political ties, as did many European governments, including France, Syria's closest European backer.

Relations between Syria and the U.S. -- never good in the best of times -- deteriorated rapidly under the Bush administration. Tensions mounted in 2003 when Syria sided openly with Saddam Hussein at the beginning of the Iraq war; they were further strained after Saddam's overthrow when Syria allowed foreign insurgents to cross its border into Iraq to fight coalition soldiers.

The ancient Syrian capital of Damascus.

By the end of the year, Congress had imposed sanctions on Syria saying that it supported terrorism and for its occupation of neighboring Lebanon. It was time for "behavior change" in Damascus, Washington asserted.

But it was Hariri's assassination in a massive car bomb attack on Valentine's Day in 2005 that brought U.S.-Syrian relations to a new low. The murder of the popular and unifying politician, who had helped rebuild Beirut after 15 years of civil war, left the Lebanese outraged. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets calling for Syrian troops to withdraw from Lebanon after 30 years of occupation. The demand was echoed by the U.S.

In parliamentary elections that followed -- the first free of direct Syrian involvement in decades -- Lebanon elected a U.S.-backed government. But it was soon undermined by a campaign of bombings and assassinations directed at anti-Syrian politicians. Again Washington placed the blame firmly at Syria's door.

Shortly after Hariri's death, U.N. investigators arrived in Beirut to investigate the assassination, and rumors swirled that President Assad might be implicated in the killing. Back in Washington, the talk had turned from "behavior change" to "regime change."

But today the tribunal into Hariri's murder is stalled, a new French president has decided that Damascus is the key to stabilizing the Middle East; and even Israel, a long-time Syrian enemy, is holding indirect peace talks with the Assad regime.

A billboard featuring Syria's president Bashar al Assad.

Now, Syrian officials have their eyes set on a thaw with the U.S. They're banking on an Obama administration to support their peace talks with the Israelis. There are grounds for optimism. Not only has Obama publicly endorsed Israeli-Syrian peace talks, but last August Obama's foreign policy advisor, Daniel Kurtzer, visited Damascus and encouraged the Syrians to step up their talks with Israel.

Syria is less certain about what a McCain presidency might yield. In the past, McCain has backed talks with Damascus. But his current foreign policy team advocates maintaining pressure on Syria and Iran for their support of terrorist groups and has stated that Arab-Israeli peace talks are not a top priority.

Regardless, Syria watchers believe both candidates will ultimately engage with Damascus. They note that even the Bush administration is talking again with the Syrians. Just last month, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly to discuss regional events.

Syria and the U.S. do have some shared interests -- among them is the fight against terrorism. Just after I left Syria, Damascus was wracked by a massive car bombing, the largest in decades, killing 17 people. The Assad regime blamed Islamic terrorists for the bombing. Attacks like this one point to tensions within Syria as it stands at a political crossroads and decides whether to stick with its long-standing alliances with Iran and militant groups such as Hezbollah or move toward closer ties with the West.

It is true that Pakistan, a Muslim country of more than 160 million people, has a rich history of women in politics. It is also true that many of them have found their way to power because their husbands or fathers or brothers were already in politics, which gave them access. Lately, that mindset has begun to change.

In January 2000, former President Pervez Musharraf initiated a series of local government reforms that allowed women to enter politics at a grassroots level. Nasreen Jalil, Karachi's deputy Mayor feels that this step allowed women from different income levels to participate in government.

Sitting in her office in Karachi she tells me that the city council she presides over has 255 members, and 33 percent of them are women. "These women are from the lower-middle classes; they are not even well educated. But just the fact that they have been elected and sent to this forum, means that they are now part of the decision-making process and this will bring about a difference."

Jalil is a good example. She doesn't come from a political family, and when she joined the political party, Mohajir Quami Movement (MQM) 20 years ago, they didn't even take her seriously. "My husband was accepted immediately because he was a man. I was taken casually and given menial jobs like making tea, or cleaning or photo-stating," she says.

Jalil worked hard to be recognized and eventually served as a senator in Pakistan. But she also admits that she is lucky -- most women in the country are unable to enter politics because of family pressures or lack of opportunities. She believes it's the same in the United States.

"The United States lacks strong female candidates because people probably don't want them there. They are afraid of strong women all over the world," she tells me. "Look at how they disregarded Hillary Clinton," pointing to the fact that Barack Obama did not nominate her as his running mate.

In the past few weeks, local Pakistani newspapers have taken a keen interest in the upcoming U.S. elections, especially in Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Of course, part of that interest stems from her now infamous recent meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari, in which he not only remarked that she "looked gorgeous" but also made, what some here say, an inappropriate comment about wanting to hug her.

The Urdu language newspapers ran prominent accounts of the "embarrassing" incident, and television channels played romantic ballads over footage of the meeting. Pakistan's late night comedy shows lampooned the president's faux pas, and the outcome of the meeting enraged many women across the country.

"I think it is offensive that women have to be pretty and that counts for the majority of their popularity," says Jalil. "Why don't people comment on whether Mr. McCain is wearing the right kind of suit or about the color of his hair? "It was a mistake. I think the people of Pakistan felt humiliated."

President Zardari's remarks are not new to Pakistan. A few weeks ago, a prominent English Language newspaper here published an article "Hotties in the House" listing the names of all the "good looking" politicians who are serving in the local and national parliament. Featured prominently on that list is Shazia Marri, who comes from a political family but only began her political career a few years ago. She is a member of the late Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party.

Marri became a child bride at the age of 14 and was divorced with a child by the time she was 16. That experience has made women's rights issues a top priority for her. She is also also a beneficiary of Pakistan's reserve seat quota for women, which guarantees a certain number of seats for women in local and national assemblies. Marri is now an information minister in the province of Sindh.

Pakistan politician, Shazia Marri.

When I walk into her office, she is surrounded by men, women and children who have come looking for her help. Although she is chiefly the government spokesperson and liaison to the media, she's inundated daily with people who need jobs, health care, basic sanitation -- the list goes on. Her can-do attitude has made her very popular with all walks of life.

Before 9/11, Obeidallah did not particularly identify as an Arab-American, but quickly found that his comedy routines became an outlet to entertain and confront stereotypes about Arab-Americans as well as to explore a part of himself that had instantly come under scrutiny. He got his start in comedy when he was still a practicing lawyer, winning a funniest lawyer competition. Soon after, he left his job and began performing at venues across the country. Eventually, Obeidallah co-founded the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival, a highly acclaimed showcase of Arab-American comics, playwrights, and filmmakers.

He recently returned from a tour of the Middle East, where, he says, Arab residents follow U.S. politics more avidly than the average American. "In some cases they have lived through the policies. They have suffered through it. It's not this abstract thing," he said. "I'm sure the refugees from Iraq who are living in Jordan now know about our foreign policy."

I woke up this morning at five. I'd turned off the air conditioner during the night and it was now too hot to sleep. Out on the balcony the humidity was just as unforgiving, and the sky seemed inches above my head. I was turning to go back inside when lightning and thunder struck. It was like someone had cracked a giant whip across the sky, ending with a stupendous series of explosions. It was the Vietnam War all over again.

The monsoon downpour that followed the ferocious thunder reminded me of youthful summers before I left this country. But such memories don't linger long these days. Not that they're no longer important, but it's been a long time. In 1975, at the end of the Vietnam War, I fled my native country to take refuge in the U.S. I was 17.

Two years ago, I moved back with my widowed mother to settle permanently in Hanoi, in a country that's quite different than the one we left. Now, at 50, I too have changed. I no longer have a single identity. I'm split in two -- parts of me still deeply Vietnamese, parts of me thoroughly American. There are times I can hardly explain myself to myself.

Now in Vietnam, an American habit haunts me. Unable to return to sleep, I go from my bed to the desk and turn on the computer. News about the U.S. presidential election jumps off the screen.

With John McCain as the Republican presidential candidate, the war many of us refugees tried to put behind us has come back. Like McCain, my father was imprisoned by the North Vietnamese for his support of the U.S.-backed government in Saigon. We didn't see him for many years. So I have struggled to put the past behind me. Many of my friends have also moved back to Vietnam, confronting our painful history and developing a new view of our birthplace.

A Society in Transition

The Vietnam I am encountering now is a new Vietnam that no longer views America through the prism of a devastating war. It is still a communist country, but at the same time, it is deeply capitalistic and open to Western culture. Ironically, the Vietnamese have moved on in ways the U.S. has not, despite much more horrific losses of 58,000 Americans versus nearly 3 million Vietnamese by some counts.

These days, America is a source of investment, a business partner, and a cultural compass. The dour communist officials and veterans who fought against the Americans have been replaced by a younger generation. It is a country of people mainly in their 20s and 30s, and while the majority of the population still lives in the countryside, more and more are moving into ever expanding urban areas.

Young urban people identify more with the U.S. and the outside world than with the farmers who feed them. They listen and dance to hip-hop, watch endless Hollywood movies and TV programs replicating "American Idol" and "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." Children soak up regular meals at Colonel Sanders' Kentucky Fried Chicken, and some live with their parents in town houses that look like they've been transported straight from suburban California, complete with SUVs in the driveway.

But beyond the surface, America's influence in Vietnam is welcomed by locals here, and some inside the government and ruling party. Ties with Washington are seen as crucial to counteract the heavy sway of a giant neighbor, China.

Perhaps that's why not many people think of John McCain as a Navy pilot dropping bombs from the skies over Hanoi. Mostly, I hear people here talk of a different McCain -- the senator rather than the former prisoner of war.

Nathalie Quynh-Nhu Miller, a Vietnamese-American who has spent several years here helping rural people start business projects, says, "There's a strange allegiance among some Vietnamese to McCain, as he's remembered as a U.S. politician who spearheaded the normalization of economic relations between the U.S. and Vietnam.

"The bloody history between our two countries is only a hazy backdrop to today's business partnerships," Miller adds. "Vietnamese people are always quick to say that the war is over and that friendship between the American and Vietnamese people is what matters now -- and I believe that sentiment is heartfelt."

Miller does hear stories from rural people in the Northwest where she works. Most people there have never met an American. Yet they tell her what the U.S. bombing campaigns did to them and to their families. "The stories people tell are not accusatory and are not seeking apologies," Miller insists. "It is simply a matter of putting the truth of what happened on the table and staring it head on."

A Distant Election

Kim Ninh is another returned expat, who escaped Vietnam with her family as a young girl in the "Boat People" exodus of the late 1970s. About two years ago, she moved from Northern California to Hanoi to become the representative of the Asia Foundation in Vietnam, where she frequently encounters many public and nongovernmental officials.

She says they discuss the social and political situation in Vietnam, but the U.S. election is not a frequent topic. "These days Vietnamese are consumed with concerns about inflation, but I know that they think that the outcome of the U.S. elections are important to Vietnam, to the world," says Ninh. And the global financial crisis fueled by U.S. bank failures will no doubt bring more attention to the elections.

Until recently, Vietnam's economy was growing at a breakneck 8.5 percent -- making it a new Asian darling for many foreign investors. But easy credit, bad real estate speculation, corruption, and government inefficiency has driven up inflation to 30 percent. Farmers who've abandoned rice fields did not find rewards in factory jobs, and thousands have gone on strike. And yet, after 20 years of openness and reforms, slow-in-coming as they were, the people have not yet directed their anger toward the government.

Officials still hold revolutionary credentials as heroes in the fight against America. The media is censored and reluctant to criticize the government, and politics is seen as a fruitless topic of discussion. That explains the lack of interest in American elections, says Quynh Pham, another Californian who came back to open an art gallery here nearly 10 years ago. "The Vietnamese I know are not interested in politics here, let alone those in other nations."

Another artist, Thien Do, who returned to Vietnam after more than 25 years in the U.S., told me, "The U.S. presidential elections do come up from time to time among my Vietnamese friends. But for the most part, their interest seems to lie not in the two candidates, but in the fact that finally someone will replace President Bush."

The Asia Foundation's Kim Ninh says, "Obama is less known, but the fact that this is a historic election in terms of race and age is not lost on the Vietnamese."

I hear many here say that ultimately "America won't let a black man become president." Thinh Nguyen, a successful Silicon Valley engineer who started his own IT firm in the former Saigon five years ago, hears the same question over and over again: "Why would Americans vote for a black guy instead of a war hero?"

Like me, many of my Vietnamese-American friends are beginning to look at the American elections as a possible influence on Vietnam. "I wish the Vietnamese can one day have an election to choose their leaders democratically," Thinh Nguyen told me.

That may be a distant dream, as many here say they have no idea how to influence their government, and generally they don't bother to think about it. People laugh when I ask whether they listen to the public speakers blaring out "news" and "party directives" each morning and afternoon. It's annoying noise more than anything else.

Perhaps someday Vietnam will look to America not only as an economic opportunity, but also as a democratic model. For those of us who have left the U.S. to come back here, this election has become an incentive to reflect on American society.

A Shared History

Kim Ninh, who traveled to Asia frequently for nearly 10 years before moving to Vietnam, told me, "Vietnam is a place that has tremendous affection for America, and I find myself explaining America to my Vietnamese friends and colleagues. In that process, I can recall the good things about America and what makes me feel American: the openness of mind, the generosity of spirit, the willingness to experiment, and the mix of people and institutions that allow for such extraordinary creativity. America is truly a special place."

Still it is the relationship between these two homelands that remains the key concern. For my Vietnamese-American friends, as it is for me, the war that resulted in our migration to America has receded. It will still haunt certain moments of our lives and our dreams -- particularly in thunderous monsoon storms.

But for the thousands who have returned to visit, to live and to work here, the sound of bombs and missiles has been replaced by the cacophony of a chaotic society on a rush toward a capitalistic future. The face of Colonel Sanders hasn't quite replaced that of Ho Chi Minh, founder of Communist Vietnam. But in a public survey just a few years back, Bill Gates and Bill Clinton were more recognizable to locals as heroes than Uncle Ho.

"The relationship between Vietnam and the U.S. will grow, and the election in the U.S. is important as the two countries forge closer ties in the face of China's dominant role in the region," says Thinh Nguyen.

"It's in the interest of both the U.S. and Vietnam to have strong bilateral relations," Kim Ninh says. "Vietnam is a country of some 85 million, emerging rapidly in the Asia-Pacific region as a middle power, and will have a role to play in the region as well as in the world.

"We were born into a Muslim family in a predominantly Christian area," Said Obama said. "We went to Christian schools and studied Christian religious education. Whenever we were short of something we were sent into Christian homes (to borrow) and whenever they were short of something they were sent into our home. Religion never became an issue."

He added that the senator's father never practiced Islam.

"Other than Barack -- whom he gave his name to -- none of his other children have Islamic names," Said Obama said.

When I asked him about the fact that his famous nephew had carefully distanced himself from his Muslim roots during the presidential campaign, he told me that the senator's relatives in Kenya were not offended. That's because everyone in the Obama family is at liberty to join any religion.

"What I know is that we are a multicultural, multiracial and a multi-religious family," Said Obama said.

How Obama's Kenyan family sees religion is no different from the way most Kenyans do: Everyone has a personal relationship with God. People of the same religious beliefs may work together to convert souls, but they do not put conditions on those who fail to heed the word. Instead, they pray that one day the nonbelievers may see the light.

Said Obama, Sen. Barack Obama's uncle.

American Christian fundamentalists on the contrary seem so sure that their God is the right one that they do not hesitate to condemn other forms of worship on His behalf. A few months ago, a man at a bar in Minneapolis told me that Obama's "questionable religion" would cost him the presidency.

"There are people in this country who believe that America is the superpower it is today because of our belief in God," the man said. "And by 'God,' they mean the one Christians believe in."

Whether Obama will lose the presidency remains to be seen, but a particular type of rhetoric has surfaced since he took a clear lead in the polls. At a McCain rally in Minnesota recently, a woman called Obama "an Arab." (It should be noted that McCain admonished the woman and took the microphone from her telling her that Obama was a decent family man who he happened to disagree with on a number of fundamental issues.) She later told the Star Tribune: "You can't trust Barack Hussein Obama because he is a Muslim and a terrorist."

Kenya has been successful in religious tolerance because people see themselves only as messengers of God, rather than enforcers of God's law, as do Christian fundamentalists in America.

Before I spoke to Said Obama, I had not thought about how religiously diverse many Kenyan families are. My own family is no exception, so I went to my uncle, Henry, for an explanation.

"If your parents are Seventh-Day Adventists or Roman Catholics it doesn't mean that you are also supposed to be a Seventh-Day Adventist or Roman Catholic," Uncle Henry said. "You can pick whatever religion you want."

Members of my extended family don't agree on whether Saturday or Sunday is the God-mandated day of worship. Uncle Henry and his wife and children are Catholic and rest on Sunday. My grandfather, other uncles and aunts and my mother picked the Seventh-Day Adventist church, which has Saturday as the holy day.

There are also members of my family who believe in God but are not in any organized religion, and others who hold indigenous beliefs. At one time, a family member was married to a Muslim woman. Despite all these differences, I have never heard of an argument about whose God is the right one.

When I asked Uncle Henry about the role of religion in politics, he surprised me by pulling out a copy of The Obama Nation, the anti-Obama book by Jerome R. Corsi.

"I wanted to know exactly what Jerome is saying and if it is true," he told me, before I could ask him where he got the book. (He had his son ship it from California). "I found that there's no truth in it. First and foremost, the fact that Obama's grandparents were Muslims does not mean that Obama is Muslim."

According to Uncle Henry, religion has become a greater part of American politics because politicians have made the electorate hate Muslims.

Sen. Barack Obama, pictured with his grandmother, on a visit to Kenya in 2006.

"I think Americans, per se, do not have a problem with Islam," he said. "They have only the fear. Every time an American wakes up in the morning he thinks Osama bin Laden is next to him."

Uncle Henry has also been a campaign manager for many politicians in our West Mugirango constituency, so I asked him if he thought Kenyans would elect a Muslim president.

"If we get a good person, a good leader, who is Muslim, yes we can," he said.

Like many Africans, Kenyans are some of the most religious people in the world. Our national anthem begins with a call to "God of all creation" to "Bless this, our land and nation." Yet when it comes to politics, Kenyans never demand that a candidate has to be a particular faith to be elected to lead their God-given land.

After the meeting with my uncle, I went to nearby Jamia Mosque to hear what Muslims had to say about religion in Kenyan and U.S. politics. I asked men who had just completed their Friday prayers why it did not matter to them that Mwai Kibaki, the president, was a Catholic.

"In Kenya we don't ask, 'What are your beliefs? Are you a Catholic, Orthodox?' We don't mind," one man said. "But when Americans see a beard or a [Muslim] dress, the first thing that comes to their mind is terrorism or, 'This person ought to change their way of living.'"

In fact, as several Muslim men outside the Mosque spoke, there was a Christian man nodding to some of the things said in the discussion. When it was his turn to speak, the Muslims listened attentively and did not seem to mind that he was there.

"I'm a Christian, I read the Bible, but I also read the Koran," the Christian man said. "All the religions are the same. The meaning of Islam is total submission to the will of God. The greatest commandment in the Bible says love the Lord our God with all your mind, all your heart, all your soul, all your strength. If you follow the will of God, you are a Christian and you are a Muslim."

The Christian man said that America had a "God-given mission" to be the moral authority in the world. But he said Americans were failing, not because they mix religion and politics, but rather because their religious politics contained hateful messages. This, according to him, was an abandonment of God.

Whatever happens in November, never in the history of the United States has a candidate inspired and appealed to so many people from different parts of the world. I spoke to people in Kenya -- including many Christians and Muslims who did not expect a President Obama to change America's aggressive foreign policy -- and they all agreed that they would be alright if Obama lost a fair election.

But many political observers here, and elsewhere in the world, are warning Obama and McCain to think more about Cambodia -- at least its dark past. What happened here 30 years ago, they say, is a cautionary lesson, highly relevant to one of the most pressing issues that will face the next administration: what to do about Pakistan.

That may seem an odd claim. On the face of it, Cambodia and Pakistan could not be more different: the former a small, predominantly Buddhist nation now viewed as a regional model of stability and economic growth; the latter a large, nuclear-armed Muslim state that many in the West consider to be one of the most dangerous countries in the world.

But dial back history and the scenario in Cambodia bears a striking resemblance to America's woes in Pakistan today.

In the 1970s, Communist guerrilla forces based in Cambodia increasingly attacked American troops in Vietnam, retreating back to safe havens along the Cambodian border -- just as today, Taliban guerrillas increasingly attack American and NATO troops in Afghanistan and flee safely back to Pakistan. In frustration, the United States escalated a bombing campaign -- secretly at first, and then openly -- inside Cambodia to flush the Communists out, just as the U.S. military is beginning to openly bomb militants inside Pakistan.

The scale is vastly different. The Nixon-Kissinger-era bombing of Cambodia was on a massive, almost unimaginable scale, and it eventually spread throughout the country. At the moment, U.S. bombing attacks inside Pakistan are furtive and limited -- mostly incursions from unmanned drones on remote Al Qaeda havens.

But now, as U.S. elections loom, both Obama and McCain are pushing to take the fight deeper into Pakistan's backyard, much as former president Richard Nixon did in Cambodia. As Obama recently said on the campaign trail, "We must also recognize that we cannot succeed in Afghanistan or secure America as long as there is a terrorist safe-haven in northwest Pakistan. A year ago, I said that we must take action against bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights and Pakistan cannot or will not act." Like McCain, Obama added that he endorses sending 10,000 more U.S. troops to augment the 30,000 currently stationed in Afghanistan.

U.S. bombing of Cambodia did not succeed in winning the war in Vietnam, nor in suppressing the local insurgency in Cambodia.

Many in the U.S. would favor a more aggressive effort against terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan -- who once advised Nixon and now advises McCain -- criticized Obama for not proposing an even larger escalation of the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan: "Pakistan has become for the Taliban, Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda the same sanctuary that North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia provided for the Viet Cong and NVA ...Why does Barack Obama think a surge of 10,000 troops will succeed in winning a war in which we have failed to prevail after seven years of fighting?"

But the parallels with what happened in Cambodia trouble others.

"The U.S. should be careful. It's similar to what happened in Cambodia during the 1960s and 1970s. [The U.S.] risks falling into the trap of the terrorists, to make the U.S. confused and to spread the war," Dr. Meas Nee, a Cambodian political analyst, told me recently, referring to Pakistan.

His worries were echoed half a world away in Pakistan by cricket star turned politician Imran Khan, who told a press conference, "I hope [Obama] realizes that Pakistan could become another Cambodia. It could face a similar situation if they push the Pakistani army into the Tribal Areas..."

The U.S. bombing of Cambodia did not succeed in winning the war in Vietnam, nor in suppressing the local insurgency in Cambodia. In fact, journalists like William Shawcross in his famous book, Sideshow, argue that the bombing left the once neutral, peaceful country shell-shocked, and radicalized its victims (as appears to be happening in Pakistan).

Cambodia's economic revival has only come 30 years after the Khmer Rouge were finally defeated. It has required decades of intervention from the United Nations and hundreds of millions of dollars in international aid.

When the bombing failed, and the U.S. military pulled out of Cambodia under Congressional pressure, "The impact was the collapse of the country, its complete destruction -- not just in infrastructure, but the soul of the nation," says Chea Vannath, a political analyst in Phnom Penh, referring to the Khmer Rouge, the murderous, Maoist-inspired rebels that seized power in 1975. Likewise, many fear that the Taliban will continue to spread in Pakistan if the U.S. war against them fails, and the U.S. and NATO pull out of the region.

It is true that prosperity and stability have come to Cambodia, as anyone strolling in the elegant capital, Phnom Pehn, can see in the proliferation of luxury hotels and restaurants. But this economic revival has only come a full 30 years after the Khmer Rouge were finally defeated, not by the U.S. but by the Vietnamese. And it has required decades of intervention from the United Nations and hundreds of millions of dollars in international aid.

Perhaps if the Senate and the House pass legislation -- endorsed by Obama -- to triple non-military U.S. aid to Pakistan to $7.5 billion over five years, it will help limit the Taliban and Al Qaeda's ability to exploit the poor and unemployed in Pakistan's tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.

In the meantime, Cambodians, like Pakistanis, hope November's elections will help avert another Cambodian-style bombing campaign. But some are not sure which candidate is likely to do that. "To be short, McCain -- it seems nothing will change. Obama is a question mark..." says Ms. Vannath.