Loneliest day for the only superpower

There has been at least one day in each of the past 23 years when the United States has been the most isolated country in the world. Those were the days when the United Nations General Assembly voted to condemn its decades-long economic embargo on Cuba.

On Tuesday, the UN General Assembly again voted overwhelmingly, for the 23rd time, condemning US policies and actions vis-��-vis Cuba. In the 193-nation assembly, 188 countries voted for the resolution. The two countries that voted against were the same as in previous years, the US and Israel. Pacific island nations Palau, Marshall Islands and Micronesia abstained.

It was a day when the US truly found itself losing the moral high ground that it has so skillfully claimed even when committing colossal blunders. Most US allies, from Europe to Asia, have long chosen to oppose it on the Cuba issue. Most Latin American countries have vociferously protested against the US policy of excluding Cuba from regional meetings. Many US foreign policy experts, too, have chided their country's Cuba policy as becoming increasingly ridiculous. Their hope that US President Barack Obama would change the Cuba policy has turned into frustration.