U..S president-elect Barack Obama inherits the in-box from hell, but an all-points crisis like the present one also creates opportunities for radical change that do not exist in normal times.
As Rahm Emanuel, his newly appointed chief of staff, put it: “Never waste a crisis.” Is Obama clever, radical enough to seize those opportunities?
For example, he has promised to shut down the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
While he is at it, why not hand the whole US military base at Guantanamo back to the Cubans?
Guantanamo has absolutely no military purpose. Washington has only hung on to it for all these decades to annoy Cuba. If the US wanted to bomb Cuba, it would do it from Florida. If it wanted to invade, it would land Marines on beaches elsewhere, not march them into the teeth of the Cuban defences around Guantanamo.
Besides, the goal should not be to fight the Cuban Communist regime, but to smother it with love.
After half a century in power the Castro brothers are nearing the end of the road. What better way is there to signal the end of the confrontation with the United States that has kept the Communists in power for so long than to evacuate the only foreign military base on Cuban territory?
In normal times, a decision to pull out of Guantanamo would stir up a months-long storm in the US media. Right now, it would be a two-day story that cost Obama almost no political capital.
Opportunities for this sort of low-cost action that clears old obstacles away now abound, and it would be a shame to miss them.
Another example. Obama plans to cancel most of President Bush’s executive orders, including the one that overruled California’s decision to impose stricter emissions standards on automobiles.
Why not accompany that with a federal commitment to an even higher standard -- and make it a condition of the forthcoming bail-out of the big three US auto-makers that they meet that standard in all the cars they produce within three years?
The recession will only feel like a crisis for a few more months. People eventually get used to almost anything. So Obama should do as much of the controversial stuff as he can while the public is still willing to accept the destruction of shibboleths that have hung around.
The century-long preeminence of the United States as the economic superpower was bound to decline gradually as the Asian giants industrialized, but the financial collapse risks turning that into a steep and irreversible fall. Even the US dollar could lose its place as the global reserve currency. To limit the damage, Obama has to play a poor hand very well.
Current developments in Iraq allow Obama an easy and early exit from that country, but his statements on Afghanistan and Pakistan suggest that he is still trapped in the “war on terror” paradigm.
In truth, US military domination of the Middle Eastern region is finished, but the hardest thing is just to walk away from the region and accept that changes will occur there. He may lack the knowledge and the wisdom to do that.
If he can untie that albatross from around America’s neck, however, he stands a fair chance of gaining a real leadership role in international affairs.
The obvious place to begin is in the area where the United States has done the most damage by its obstructionist policies under President Bush: climate change.
Serious action on global warming is clearly on Obama’s list of things to do. It is also an area in which bold action has relatively modest up-front costs (though major long-term costs), so it is an ideal field to concentrate on in a recession. It can even create a lot of jobs, if it is done right.
If he takes leadership on that issue, avoids disaster in the Middle East, and restores faith in the US financial system, Obama can put the country back on its previous glide-path of gentle and purely relative decline in the great-power pecking order.
That is his most urgent task, because the risk of a run on the US dollar and an abrupt and precipitous fall in American prestige and power still persists.
But at least the economic crisis gives him unprecedented freedom of action, if he chooses to use it.
–Mehr News Agency
By Gwynne Dyer
one day i went shopping
one day i went shopping outside,and in an ed hardy store,I found some kinds of ed hardy i love most they are Your website is really good Thank you for the information edhardy com official site edhardy com official site www edhardy clothes com www edhardy clothes com don ed hardy don ed hardy ed hardy.com ed hardy.com ed hardy clothing official website ed hardy clothing official website cheap ed hardy sunglasses cheap ed hardy sunglasses ed hardy canada ed hardy canada edhardy com clothing edhardy com clothing www edhardy com au www edhardy com au discount ed hardy clothes discount ed hardy clothes shop ed hardy shop ed hardy Thank you for the information
discount women's ugg elsey boots 5596 online sales
YS0304A9 Cunning proceeds from want of capacity.Clean your finger,before you point at my spots. He that can bear a ugg australia boots reproof,and mend by it,if he is not wise,is in a fair way of being so.Tis hard to be poor and honest:An empty uggs classic cardy sack can hardly stand upright,but if it does,＇tis a stout one!Keep conscience clear,then never fear.When you＇re good to others,you are best to yourselfWhat is serving God?＇Tis doing good ugg boot sale to manA quite conscience sleeps in thunder,but rest and guilt live far adunder.There is no man so bad,but he secretly respects the good.A true great man will neither trample on a worm,nor sneak to an emperpor.Do me the favour to deny me cheap mbt shoes at once.You may be more happy than pinces,if you will be more virtuous.Who has deceiv＇d thee so oft as thy self? Nothing so popular as goodness. Don＇t misinform your doctor nor your lawyer.A good http://www.uggboots4buy.com/ lawyar a bad neighbour.The excellency of hogs is fatness,of men virtue. Don＇t throw stones at your neightbours,if your own windows are glass.Keep flax from fire,youth from gaming.One mend-fault is worth two find-faults,but one find-fault is better than two make-faultsThe mbt shoes clearance sun never repents of the good he does,nor does he ever demand a recompence.
discount women moncler down jacket sales online
YS0304A8 The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out moncler jackets.Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.Life is not fair, get used to it.The ugg adirondack boots world won't care about your self-esteem.
The world will expect you to accomplish something ugg broome boots before you feel good about yourself.You will not make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with a http://www.edhardy-buy.com/ car phone, until you earn both.If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have ugg boots tenure.Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different moncler online word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity.If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about our mistakes, learn from them.Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now.
cheap air jordan 3 shoes online sales
YS0304A7 Activity is the only road to knowledge.A free man obtains cheap jordans knowledge from many sources 1 besides books.A great part to the information I have was acquired by looking up something jordans shoes and finding something else on the way.If a man empties his purse into his head , no man can take it away from him , an investment in air jordans knowledge always pays the best interest.Imagination is more important than knowledge.Knowledge is http://www.nikejordanshoes2sell.com/power.The empty vessels make the greatest sound.Do not, for one repulse, give up the purpose that you resolved to effect.Don't part with your nike dunk illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.I want to bring out the secrets of nature and apply them for the happiness of nike shox man. I don't know of any better service to offer for the short time we are in the world.Ideal is the beacon. Without nike air max shoes ideal, there is no secure direction; without direction, there is no life.If winter comes, can spring be far behind.If you doubt yourself, then indeed you stand on shaky ground.
cheap nike air max shoes sales online
YS0304A6 Almost any situation ---good or bad--- is affected by the cheap prada shoes attitude we bring to.Perhaps you can’t control your new nike air max job, but you may be able to make other http://www.nikeaf1jordanshoes.com/ changes in your life.The Chinese word for crisis is divided into two characters, one meaning danger and the other meaning wholesale gucci shoes opportunity. The tragedy of life is not so much what men suffer, but what they miss women's nike shox.I find life an exciting business ------ and most exciting when it is lived for others.Young men make great mistakes in life; for one thing, they idealize authentic air jordan shoes love too much.I don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got down to work.Experience is the child of thought, and thought is the child of action. We cannot learn men from books.
discount ed hardy women long sleeve shirts online sales
YS0304A5 The tragedy of the world is that those who are imaginative have but slight ed hardy clothing experience, and those who are experienced have feeble imagination.The ed hardy hoodies way to win an atomic war is to make certain it never starts.ed hardy shirts Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want. To make a lasting marriage
we have to overcome self-centeredness.All I am, or can be, I owe to my angel mother.Experience without learning http://www.edfashionclothes.com/ is better than learning without experience.
Experience keeps a dear ed hardy coats school, yet fools will learn in no other.Follow your own course, and let moncler jackets people talk.If you would have a thing well done, you must do it yourself.Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action. Our moncler online store deeds determine us, much as we determine our deeds.When a man is wrapped up in himself he makes a pretty little package.The secret of being miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not.Optimists always picture themselves accomplishing their goals.
~*.*~
TISSOT Watches failing to TISSOT Watches create rolex watches jobs in rolex watches sufficient cartier watches numbers cartier watches to absorb.
watch
For 2009, you've got to have something studded, it's huge right now, omega replica watches and the addition of metal studs to everything from leather to denim adds a rocker-chick edge with a little hint of 80's flair, replica omegadefinitely on trend! Put studs on cowboy boots, and you will be hitting two omega watches trends at once.
Write comment