Having surfed to power on a wave of voter discontent generated by the failures of President George Bush and the Republican Party, and having generated a level of enthusiasm among supporters not seen in decades, Barack Obama has become the 44th president of the United States.
But as he prepares to enter the White House, he faces challenges almost unique in modern times. It has been 40 years since a new president took office in a time of war.
And with the American economy facing what could be its worst crisis since the Great Depression of the late 1920s, Obama will have to act quickly to restore confidence.
On top of all this, add the confused geopolitical dynamics of a world devolving into multipolarity, at a time when the US’ credibility and reputation is at an all time low, and you get a sense of the terrible pressures a young, new president is inheriting.
So what will President Obama do? Let’s start with foreign policy.
Obama has promised to pull US troops out of Iraq swiftly and send more military resources to Afghanistan. He says he will make sure that multinational forces in Afghanistan defeat the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Obama would pursue a much more consultative foreign policy than Bush, emphasising diplomacy as a tool and making use of traditional US alliance structures and the United Nations. With the country sick of war, he is unlikely to make any additional major overseas military commitments.
He makes clear he is a fervent supporter of Israel’s security, but has also said he would become actively involved in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process right away.
He has already met with Palestinian leaders during his trip abroad last summer. Source>>>
Featured Videos 
November 5th, 2008 
124493 Comment from Hamm 
10:33 am 
Write a comment
RSS 2.0
Atom 0.3
RSS 0.92
RDF
General observation… not a lot of comments on the site today. Are we all just in shock?