The Pakistani Spectator

As Inauguration Day approaches, the citizens of United States seems to be catching the edge of their collective seats waiting to see who the real Barack Obama is, and how he will step up to address the worst economic crisis since the Depression. Adding to his burden, Obama is following George W. Bush, who may go down as the most failed and destructive president in history.

As a result, in addition to the financial disaster, Obama inherits two wars and a huge array of counterproductive policies perpetuated by conservatives over the past eight years, many of which are making the resolution of the burning issues at home. Obama may very well be facing the most difficult challenges that any new president in history has ever faced upon taking office in United States. By any measure, he has an incredibly difficult task.

Obama moves into the White House as a brilliant, attractive and popular figure, with enormous good will across the globe. But he immediately steps into a maelstrom of crises that have no clear solution, nor an obvious blueprint.

As the economy spirals downward, more people have become jobless and many millions more Americans are losing their health care — more than 50 million now. Simultaneously, many states are on the verge of bankruptcy as services in every sector rapidly deteriorate, and businesses across the board suffer setbacks and make layoffs. And every day of decline has the effect of less tax revenue and resources for services and governing, adding to the vicious cycle.

What should, and what will, Obama do? And how could he screw it up, given the fact that pretty much everything is riding on him getting things right the first time in the early stages of his administration? As we all wait to see what happens, there is no question that Obama, at least in terms of getting elected, has been a brilliant politician.

The high jump bar is continuously been ratchet up by the out going Bush administration for Obama to scale them down. The entire America at home seems to be smouldering in fire and smoke of depression and ironically it is left for Obama to fight the fire. Even at abroad; the anarchist Israel has set Gaza on fire by invading Gaza and inflicting and escalating of carnage of defence less Palestinians lest Israel is put on some side tracks or her US proxy status is lowered. Very timely Mumbai Massacre drama is also orchestrated so that some how in the light of Change announced by Obama on war on Terror. The war on Terror is not played down in Afghanistan or Pakistan and interests of war hungry states as well as their running of war industries are not hampered.

His election to the White House as a young upstart, half-white, half African, one-term senator from Illinois is probably the single most impressive electoral accomplishment in the past 100 years. But the big question on the table is how Obama translates his prodigious skills as a communicator, and his powerful mandate, into a governing strategy that can tackle the mammoth pile of problems on his plate?  It is prayed that the hope of change that masses in United States and the other nations largely effected by the policies and the destruction and devastation brought and thrust upon this planet especially in Muslim world after the 9/11 by the Bush Administration; at least they will have a sigh of relief.

Jump Start of U.S. Economy at home

We do not know what will work in terms of jump-starting the economy, but there is growing consensus that if there will be an error, it will be because an economic stimulus is too small and not too big. Screwing up the stimulus could be a combination of factors including: watering it down and making it too small because of Republican resistance, or larding it up with tax breaks that will not provide the necessary kick to the economy; not spending the money in the most efficient ways, the methods that will bring the most bang for the buck; focusing too much on building highways and perpetrating a culture that will undermine efforts to address climate change; and finally, and perhaps most importantly, to try to escape the perpetual quick-fix mentality that has dominated economic, social and corporate  policy for so long

Challenges abroad

Other than the challenges at home for Obama the most daunting Challenge is the repair of U.S. image abroad that Obama is finding it severely damaged and obliterated by Bush Administration for their wisdom less approaches. The burning issues on the canvas of foreign policies with regard to Muslims and the World Energy Resources are:

Whether or not escalate the War in Afghanistan & Continue the occupation in Iraq and to continue or not the Bush Administration’s warped biased View of How to Approach the Israel-Palestine Conflict

In view of the unbelievable economic challenges, U.S. can’t even afford to escalate in Afghanistan, regardless of moral issues or questions of national interest. But if Afghan war visa vie cooling down stance of terrorism in Pakistan is taken up out rightly; it is asking for a big trouble. Robert Dreyfuss writes that surging troops into Afghanistan, as in Vietnam, “will only provide the Taliban with many more targets, sparking Pashtun nationalist resistance and inspiring more recruits for the insurgency. Tariq Ali says that pacifying the country would require at least 200,000 more troops, beyond the 62,000 U.S. and NATO forces there now, and that it would necessitate laying waste huge parts of Afghanistan. Many Afghan watchers consider the war unwinnable, and they point out that in the 1980s the Soviet Union, with far more troops, had engaged in a brutal nine-year counterinsurgency war — and lost.”

Dreyfuss quotes Chas Freeman, president of the Middle East Policy Council and a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia:

“We need to recall the reason we went to Afghanistan in the first place. … Our purpose was to deny the use of Afghan territory to terrorists with global reach. That was, and is, an attainable objective. It is a limited objective that can be achieved at reasonable cost. We must return to a ruthless focus on this objective. We cannot afford to pursue goals, however worthy, that it contradicts or undermines it. The reform of Afghan politics, society and mores must wait.”

It is observed that in order to sustain and justify the war in Afghanistan; a planned anarchy has since been induced in Pakistan. It has become now more evident after the Mumbai Massacre drama that joint US- India efforts are ratchet up to declaring Pakistan a terrorist state to justify the Afghan war on terror and the terror sanctuaries in Pakistan. The aim is to wilfully implicate Pakistan in Mumbai terror attack and scale down the potency of Pakistan being the sole Islamic power in the area. The possible UN sanctioned imposed may make this state economically a bankrupt and ultimately it be strip off its nuclear assets by force and thus leave it bare in the wake of turmoil, anarchy and mayhem to stagnate and ultimately disintegrate.

The other burning issue is to Continue or not the Bush Administration’s warped view of how to approach the Israel-Palestine Conflict

It would be a stretch to imagine President Obama radically altering U.S. policy toward Israel and the Occupied Territories. It’s unlikely that he will ever tout the Palestinians’ right to self-defence, call on Israel to recognize their statehood or mention their need for security, as politicians across the spectrum routinely do when discussing Israel.

But in the most powerful state in the world, a modest change of course can have a dramatic effect. For 30 years, before the Bush administration came to power, the United States was seen as being slanted toward the Israeli position on most issues, but not to a degree where it became impossible for it to play the role of a broker in the peace process. That changed when the Supreme Court elected Bush in 2000.

Having the United States be at least a minimally honest broker is vitally important for both sides of the conflict. It’s long been the case that public opinion among both Israelis and Palestinians has favoured some sort of deal embracing the concept of “land for peace.”

Tragically United States has put unrelenting pressure on the Palestinians to renounce their rejectionists, but next to none on the Israelis. What’s more, by insulating Israel from international condemnation, Washington has essentially given the Israeli majority no incentive whatsoever to rein in its violent fringe. This is a dilemma for endless conflict, and Obama would be unwise to continue it.

Conclusion

Knowing the enormity of all such problems and the constraints at hand; it amounts to pinning too high hope on one single person—Obama? Is this a reincarnation of a Messiah which is poised to reappear in United States in shape of Barrack Obama to deliver the messianic solutions for the world problems?

Any how for sure there is a change ready to dawn on all the horizons. The masses have earnestly opted for a change to see a peaceful and better and a prosperous world. Hope fully the high hopes tied and pinned on one single man Obama are fulfilled and are not dashed. Hopefully the man is allowed to live to deliver a change. Regretfully earlier on Marten Luther King who dreamt of a ‘change’ was not let to live to see his dreams fulfilled.

——————————-

Love for all, hatred for None

Links references: adabarez.co.uk