On November 4 the Democrats have won a big victory and a sort of mandate to straighten up the mess left from the Bush presidency and from the Bush years. Some of the problems are very tough to crack. I really wouldn’t want to be in the Democrats’ shoes right now.
Obviously, the most urgent problem to solve is the economy. I do not think the people who were entrusted with the $700 Billions are sure of what they are doing. Midway, they are changing course. I wish I knew to tell the correct thing to do.. That reminds me about my mother’s paternal grandmother who was in her eighties. Her grand children did not know that she could not read and write, but great-grandma would listen to their reading homework and to their piano-playing and tell them what was wrong, and the kids corrected it. I too don’t know much about that sort of economics, but I am sensing that something is not right. To make things worse, The British P.M. Brown warned that what is being done in the U.S. is typically mercantilist idea and that it will result in a long recession. Besides it is bad capitalism. Why should we, the citizens, pay for the mistakes of big banks who’s top men are spending the money like drunken sailors? Toyota came across the Pacific and defeated our best automobile manufacturers. I thing our car companies have lousy managers. Because, if they have a good idea, like Ford’s Taurus, the engineers and workmen can produce a good car. I had three Taurus in a row and loved them. Why should we give another chance to the same managers with our hart earned dollars to make more mistakes? I hope President Obama will be tighter with our money.
President-Elect Obama promised during the campaign to finish the Iraq war. Both in Turkey and in the United States basic training in infantry takes only three months. With that training soldiers go to war. Iraqi soldiers have been trained for several years. If they are not yet ready to defend their country, it is just too bad. We are not obliged to defend their country. We should pull our forces as soon as possible, and without leaving any bases any where in Iraq. For an end with victory, we have neither the military forces, nor the money, nor the time.
The PKK is a Marxist-terrorist band of Turkish Kurds who have enjoyed safe-haven in Northern Iraq during the tenure of President Bush. From there they have attacked Turkey, killing soldiers and civilians, bombing cities, aiming eventually enlarging Kurdistan into Southern Turkey. Turkey is supposed to be a U.S. Ally . This is no way to treat an ally. This shameful situation must be resolved by the new Obama Government. No wonder that the percentage of pro-U.S. people in Turkey is only 12 %, the lowest in the world.
President Bush has disregarded many International obligations of the United States, which bears our signature, especially the Geneva Convention of treating prisoners of War. The Westphalia Treaty was signed in the17th Century, at a time when the United Stated did not exist yet. But This treaty has been a standard for almost 400 years, that every state accepts. It requires a “casus belli ” for attacking another state such as an attack by that state. President Bush gave himself the right to attack first Iraq, when he suspected that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, had relations with Al Qaeda, and would give weapons of mass destruction to terrorists. Of course all the three reasons that replaced the casus belli were proven to be non-existent. It would be nice, if the new State Department would announce that United States still honors our commitment to the Geneva Convention and to the Westphalia Treaty and that we will not practice torture.
While President Obama will end the Iraq War, he wants to reinforce our forces in Afghanistan. That is the right move. The war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda must be definitely won. I hope he takes all the important measures needed to strengthen and rejuvenate our armed forces to win that war.
Our relations with Pakistan will play a big role in this effort. The Viziristan part of Pakistan is now a safe-haven for the Taliban. Either the Pakistanis must help us fight the Taliban in that region, or the U.S. must be permitted to enter that region. The basic difficulty is that the heart of Pakistanis are mostly with the Taliban. As part of that campaign Osama bin Laden must be caught.
Iran is continuing to develop its atomic bomb. There, the U.S. has only two options: Learning to live with a nuclear Iran or destroying Iran’s nuclear facilities. A nuclear Iran cannot be a threat to the United States even to Israel. It would be suicidal for Iran to use its nuclear bombs against the U.S. or Israel.. Iran’s religious leaders look like rational men. The only effect would be that Western petroleum men would have to kiss good bye the hope to get their hands on the Iranian oil. Using the other option would definitely start a new war in the Middle East. First Iranian nuclear facilities are mostly under ground and probably are duplicate. Finding and destroying them is not surely feasible. Once a War is started the Iranians will not finish it. We do not have additional forces to fight Iranians and the Taliban at the same time. This situation will not change very much, if the attack is made by Israeli planes.
The trouble with Russia was started by President Bush. The relations with President Putin (Now Prime Minister) were quite cordial. Out of a blue, President Bush announced an anti-missile missile system to be placed in Poland and Czech Republic to meet Iranian nuclear-headed missiles. But Iran has no long range missiles nor nuclear heads yet. To the Russians , it looked like some precaution against Russia and Putin was alarmed. He suggested that the anti-missile missiles be installed somewhere in Azerbaijan or Turkey , or on floating platform on the sea. Those could catch Iranian missiles if there are any, and would not be suspected to be against Russia.. President Bush rejected these suggestions and invited Putin to Kennebunkport in Maine, to his parents’ home to discuss the matter, but he could not convince him. Since then Putin has become pretty unfriendly. President Obama should find out whether we really need those anti-missile missiles, and, if we do, can they be placed somewhere where Russia would not feel uncomfortable. We do not want start another Cold War, do we? Besides, we need Russia politically.
There are other problems that I will discuss at a later date.
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