I find that the hopes centred on the Obama administration, whether in his own country or across the world, are larger than his abilities and the power that the United States is assumed to possess as the single global pole and superpower. However, and for the first time in years, I am supporting an American president and a U.S. administration because I am confident that this President is fair and means what he is saying. I also support him because he is rational, and he listens and consults before making any decisions. This is particularly important when the previous president was governing by intuition and gut-feeling, and was executing “God's orders” in going to Afghanistan and invading Iraq. If Barack Obama fails to live up to our hopes and expectations, then I think he has many excuses, the first of which being that George Bush had left him a bankrupt country that has lost two wars, and that doesn't have a clue how to make its exit from these wars. Meanwhile, there are some alarming figures, such as the current budget deficit (all my figures and information are drawn from American sources and are indisputable by the way) estimated at one trillion dollars, i.e. a record figure, and which may very well rise to two trillion dollars in the autumn. In addition, the state's debts stand now at 11.5 trillion dollars, with an annual interest cost of about 452 billion dollars. The state has also spent huge amounts of money to halt the financial crisis, which at the same time has led to a reduced tax revenues. There isn't, nor has there ever been, a bankrupt country that is strong at the same time. Yet, the above was only a drop in the ocean of difficulties: Normally, the President should have been able to implement his plans because his Democratic party controls both houses of Congress. However, the senators and representatives are in the pocket of lobbyists and the Jewish lobby and every other lobby. This is to the extent that they would disrupt the healthcare plan at the incitement of the pharmaceutical and health insurance companies. The United States today is the only industrialized country in the world that lacks healthcare coverage for all its citizens. What is more, lies by some of the healthcare plan opponents were so arrogant that they claimed that Obama's plan includes “death panels” to terminate senior citizens, which is an absolute lie. Meanwhile, some members of the Senate attempted to force the Pentagon to buy more (F - 22) fighter jets that the Department of Defence did not want because of their high cost and poor performance. In this regard, the administration succeeded in blocking the purchase of additional jets. However, it is facing a new battle in the House of Representatives where the latter is in the process of approving defence budgets that include billions of dollars to purchase weapon systems and airplanes that the Department of Defence does not want. In this vein, there was a list I read but that I don't have time to include it in this hasty article. However, it is very likely that the United States is the only country in the history of Western democracies, where the administration is trying to impose a limit for military spending, while its lawmakers are trying to increase it because they are under the control of firms and lobbies. The budget of the U.S. Department of Defence is about 600 billion dollars, and I insist that this announced figure has been shrunk, and is even a lie, since another type of military expenditure is included but under other provisions outside the Department of Defence - whose budget is just a cover-up. In any case, the “defensive” U.S. budget is much higher than the total military budgets of the rest of the world combined, and has increased every year since the fall of communism, rather than being reduced. Also, this budget must be further increased after the request of the Secretary of Defence Robert Gates to increase the size of the army by 22 thousand soldiers to meet the requirements in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the Independent libertarian congressman Ron Paul said in a speech that the U.S. foreign policy costs one trillion dollars, but did not say that the country bearing it is now bankrupt. He also said that the United States proclaimed itself to be the policeman of the world, and has 700 military bases in 135 countries, and 50 thousand American troops in Germany, 30 thousand in Japan, and 25 thousand in South Korea. The U.S is also occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, with 130 thousand troops in the former, and 60 thousand in the latter. In addition, Ron Paul called for the return of all U.S. troops to their country to stop overseas spending, and suggested the strengthening of internal security in the face of any potential terrorist acts. If I had to translate this differently, I would say that the time of war of choice, or preventive war, has ended, and only the wars of necessity remain, such as in Afghanistan, but not in Iraq. The United States has lost with George W. Bush its reputation as a pioneer in human rights, and lost the high moral ground that it previously occupied, especially that it used be the hope of peoples around the world in the days of European colonialism. However, it has now become a source of fear from a new empire and renewed colonialism. The election of Barack Obama meanwhile restored for the United States much of its previous reputation, and should he succeed in the issues to which he committed himself, this will raise his country to the position it had once occupied under Eisenhower and Kennedy for instance. However, the difficulties he is facing are enormous, some of which come from the Congress and others from other people, and even some from nature itself. For instance, the energy bill which was adopted by the Congress at the beginning of this month is contained in 1400 pages, and includes green targets such as reducing carbon emissions by 17 percent up until the year 2020, and reducing it by 83 percent by 2050. What the bill did not mention, however, is that this practically means an increased reliance by the U.S on imported oil, particularly from Saudi Arabia. This is because processing the Canadian tar sands pollutes the environment in a manner that renders achieving any green goals impossible, should it be relied on. Nevertheless, President Obama is trying hard, and our duty is to assist him. If we want him to implement the two-state solution, then at least we must help him defeat the terrorism of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and around the world. I continue tomorrow.
