generalspeaking

Chronicles of a Super-Statesman

No doubt whatever - Barack Obama, as President of the United States, inherited responsibility for an extremely, troubled, fractious, dysfunctional world. And he set his jaw and resolutely set about to bring order, justice and peace where none existed. Using his formidably persuasive elocution skills, he vowed he could, and would, simply "do it" because he must. The Hosannas rang out loud and clear, because finally America and the world at large were delivered of a political Messiah bridging not only colour and ethnicity, but religion and ideology.

And then, dammit reality set in. It does, you know.

Pre-presidency, Barack Obama vowed he would end the insurgency in Afghanistan, if he had to bomb Pakistan's border to do it. And he did it, he really did. And he sent in a promised 'surge', hauling battalions out of Iraq and forwarding them to Afghanistan because that would be the ticket to success. No one informed him beforehand, that there would be an equal surge from the insurgents, more than matching the U.S. forces, creating chaos and too many sacrifices.

And suddenly, the war in Afghanistan as it is being fought by NATO allies, encouraged by the United Nations, hugely dependent on supporting countries increasingly uneasy with the way the 'war' is proceeding, fed up with bleeding their armed forces raw and their treasuries blank, are having second thoughts. Including the U.S., since it has forewarned the Taliban that post-2011, it will be all clear.

The backlash has been, too sad to tell, America's shining armoured knight, General Stanley McChrystal, chafing under the parameters set for him by amateurs professing to know far more than he, the supreme professional, almost ready to throw in the towel. It is a sad and mournful thing when a country's principal executive orders its military commander to perform in a manner he sees fit to achieve success, rather than consult with, and take advice from that general, instead of his own closet advisers.

General McChrystal will have ample opportunity to explain to President Obama precisely how and why he is 'disappointed' in decisions that have been made without benefit of knowledge of the full picture as it pertains to Afghanistan, making his duty toward his country and his obligation toward an international force exceedingly difficult to the verge of quite simply unpredictable veering toward impossible.

And Rham Emanuel, who is 'tired' of battling the 'idealism' of the White House presidential advisers is packing his bag, another fed up stalwart in the current administration, on the verge of departure. This Congressional veteran, known for his hard bargaining, but his ability to compromise, has experienced some severe disagreements with President Obama's close advisers, themselves averse to the Chief of Staff.

Wait, there's more, how about the stinging new sanctions brought to bear on Iran, for its nuclear intransigence? Well, finally, the U.S. is beginning to bring in more stringent consequences for those who do business with Iran. And this highly successful move to isolate and bind the country financially has succeeded in eliciting an admission (boast) from its president that the country now has sufficient material for two nuclear bombs. And four more new nuclear installations on the way.

Then there's the health care fiasco, with half of the American public so uncertain about the new initiatives that they speak of their president, his policies and advisers, in unbelievably scorching verbiage of scornful disappointment and disdain. Where, despite all the diplomatic expenditures in beseeching the Democrats themselves to support the President's health care bill, there were more than enough hold-outs to create unseemly fractiousness within the party. Rahm's fault.

So, then, on to the president's calm and brotherly outreach to the international Muslim community, assuring it gravely and with the greatest of respect, that there exists no cause for suspicion between it and the American administration. A hushed expectation greeted that overture. And the Arab and Muslim worlds waited to see what would transpire. What transpired is the reality of ongoing attempts to attack the United States by disaffected fundamentalist Islamists.

Most of whom carried American citizenship. All of whom loathed whatever it is that the United States stands for, its proud traditions and heritage, its culture and its democratic inheritance, and above all, its intolerable hubris, augmented by its stature as the single remaining world power, and its capitalistic influence on the world economy. A degraded society, one whose religion is decidedly inferior to that of Islam. A terrorist country, to whom the only response could be that of effecting terror through jihad unleashed upon it.

Then there is the little misfortune of a huge oil gusher out of the Gulf of Mexico, and an exasperated president attempting to get a handle on so many diverse and needful events and misfortunes, from the country's growing national debt, to huge unemployment figures, and a slumping economy just edging out of depression, pointing a finger of blame at an immense international corporate entity with its home base in Great Britain. Relations between the U.S. and G.B. have intensified toward tense.

This is the world that the President of the United States negotiates his way through and about, from negotiating urgently with Russia and China about North Korea and Iran, Israel and Sudan through the United Nations, and trying to balance its sagging fortunes and reputation. The heartening element of the equation is not whether this very particular, very gifted, very ideological-left president will survive his experience, but that the United States most certainly will.

Labels: Traditions, Troublespots, United States

posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, June 22, 2010