Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Obama, Prisoner of Prior Presidents’ Policies
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
The dowry of past policies is such that one wonders why a perceptive person like Barak Obama would want the Presidency. He has had to retreat from a number of campaign promises; to begin, the heritage from George W. Bush.
First, the war in Afghanistan, from which the US cannot withdraw from for fear of a Taliban takeover of Pakistan, a country that has nuclear weapons. We note that Bush’s Secretary of Defense Douglas Rumsfeld, let Osama bi Laden escape in Tora Bora, and now this hero of words (Michiko Kakutani of the NYTimes claims his new book. Known and Unknown, is tedious, self-serving, and filled with efforts to blame others) rushes to disclaim all responsibilities.
Iraq War – another war the US could not afford to withdraw from for fear of collapse of the country. Now we worry, ditto, about an Iran-based Shiite takeover.
Bad blood with Iran, a country that could have been befriended when they offered to support the UN in Afghanistan but Bush chose to define them as members of the Axis of Evil.
Actually the US got into interference in Iran during the Truman presidency, in 1952 when a secular nationalist government with USSR connections led by PM Mohammad Mossadegh nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil and deposed the Shah Mohammad Resa Pahlavi. US and UK had a remedy - CIA expert Col. Kermit Roosevelt bribed the local wrestler associations who sent out burly guys to bring back the Shah. It worked, but he Shah became repressive, was chased out, and in 1979 a genuine major revolution brought down the caretaker government and raised to power the radical Shiite leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. A year later a government-supported student movement captured the US Embassy in Teheran and held 62 Americans as hostages until Jan. 20, 1980, when President Reagan took over from the Carter administration and released the frozen Iranian assets. In 1980 an eight year war between Iraq and Iran over the Shatt al-Arab waterway killed as many as a million people. Meanwhile in 1986 US, generally a supporter of Iraq, negotiated a secret weapons sale to Iran, to get the release of 96 US and other hostages held in Lebanon.
Which brings us to the current situation in Egypt, a country that coincidentally revolted against a British supported King Farouk also in 1952, and established a republic led by Lt. Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser. It participated in a six nation Arab League (now 23 members) then mostly aimed at stopping Israel, which resulted in Israel occupying the oil-rich Sinai peninsula and Gaza, in 1956 and 1967, with UN, US and UK intermediation. Nasser died in 1970, and the new President Anwar Sadat in 1977 visited Jerusalem, and in 1979, with Presser Carter’s aid, negotiated a peace with Israel, after 30 years of war, and the return of Sinai to Egypt. Egypt was suspended from the Arab League and its headquarters moved from Cairo to Tunis in Lebanon in 1979, with a readmission in 1989... Sadat was assassinated by a Muslim extremist in the army in 1982, and replaced by Vice President Hosni Mubarak, who suppressed the Muslim Brotherhood extremists, and established trade with Israel (Egypt supplies 40% of Israel’s natural gas).
The current popular revolt against Mubarak’s 29 years of dictatorship brings on difficult decisions for the President of the US. First off, the independence and self-determination for Egyptians, mostly secular people who by and large support Hamas against Israel. Is there a huge risk of the Egyptians turning against the US policies for peace in the Middle East?
Can Muslim Brotherhood, with its 25 percent Egyptian support, rise to the top, to run the country? Can the army, for nearly 30 years maintained by US (currently US contributes $1.3B a year for army and $250M for civilian welfare) provide a provisional order pending development of civilian ruled democracy? Should Mubarak’s attempt to hold on be passively supported? The example of events in Iran, a more violent country, shows what can happen in the Middle East, and President Obama has to tread very carefully and send possibly mixed signals to cover all contingencies.
The prisoners of Guantanamo are another problem, left unsolved. No one wants to accept them for resettlement.
The bailout of banks and stock exchange firms was necessitated the collapse of the mortgage backed securities resulting from the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act (Banking Act) of 1933 which separated the investment bank, retail bank and insurance company activities . The decontrol started in 1980 with the Depository Institution Deregulation in 1980, and was completed with the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act of 1999, with the latter enjoying support of both political parties.
Discussions of US budget abuses inherited in the current recession/ depression are overworked, except to mention that all the cures involve reducing government expenses offered by both parties work directly counter to the main problem, jobs, reducing employment by literally hundreds of thousands of employees in discontinued functions. The most notable solution that involves reduction of social benefits, offered by Paul D. Ryan, (R., WI), chairman of the House Budget Committee, appears to identify reduction of Social Security and Medicare benefits affecting those under age 55. The continuation of these benefits has been strongly supported by voters of all three parties (80. 80 and 79 percent) and a cut will lot fly. To salvage the budget, it appears that many of us will have to bite the bullet.
But, Green Bay, the smallest team, won Super Bowl, surely a hopeful sign for all of us.
The dowry of past policies is such that one wonders why a perceptive person like Barak Obama would want the Presidency. He has had to retreat from a number of campaign promises; to begin, the heritage from George W. Bush.
First, the war in Afghanistan, from which the US cannot withdraw from for fear of a Taliban takeover of Pakistan, a country that has nuclear weapons. We note that Bush’s Secretary of Defense Douglas Rumsfeld, let Osama bi Laden escape in Tora Bora, and now this hero of words (Michiko Kakutani of the NYTimes claims his new book. Known and Unknown, is tedious, self-serving, and filled with efforts to blame others) rushes to disclaim all responsibilities.
Iraq War – another war the US could not afford to withdraw from for fear of collapse of the country. Now we worry, ditto, about an Iran-based Shiite takeover.
Bad blood with Iran, a country that could have been befriended when they offered to support the UN in Afghanistan but Bush chose to define them as members of the Axis of Evil.
Actually the US got into interference in Iran during the Truman presidency, in 1952 when a secular nationalist government with USSR connections led by PM Mohammad Mossadegh nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil and deposed the Shah Mohammad Resa Pahlavi. US and UK had a remedy - CIA expert Col. Kermit Roosevelt bribed the local wrestler associations who sent out burly guys to bring back the Shah. It worked, but he Shah became repressive, was chased out, and in 1979 a genuine major revolution brought down the caretaker government and raised to power the radical Shiite leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. A year later a government-supported student movement captured the US Embassy in Teheran and held 62 Americans as hostages until Jan. 20, 1980, when President Reagan took over from the Carter administration and released the frozen Iranian assets. In 1980 an eight year war between Iraq and Iran over the Shatt al-Arab waterway killed as many as a million people. Meanwhile in 1986 US, generally a supporter of Iraq, negotiated a secret weapons sale to Iran, to get the release of 96 US and other hostages held in Lebanon.
Which brings us to the current situation in Egypt, a country that coincidentally revolted against a British supported King Farouk also in 1952, and established a republic led by Lt. Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser. It participated in a six nation Arab League (now 23 members) then mostly aimed at stopping Israel, which resulted in Israel occupying the oil-rich Sinai peninsula and Gaza, in 1956 and 1967, with UN, US and UK intermediation. Nasser died in 1970, and the new President Anwar Sadat in 1977 visited Jerusalem, and in 1979, with Presser Carter’s aid, negotiated a peace with Israel, after 30 years of war, and the return of Sinai to Egypt. Egypt was suspended from the Arab League and its headquarters moved from Cairo to Tunis in Lebanon in 1979, with a readmission in 1989... Sadat was assassinated by a Muslim extremist in the army in 1982, and replaced by Vice President Hosni Mubarak, who suppressed the Muslim Brotherhood extremists, and established trade with Israel (Egypt supplies 40% of Israel’s natural gas).
The current popular revolt against Mubarak’s 29 years of dictatorship brings on difficult decisions for the President of the US. First off, the independence and self-determination for Egyptians, mostly secular people who by and large support Hamas against Israel. Is there a huge risk of the Egyptians turning against the US policies for peace in the Middle East?
Can Muslim Brotherhood, with its 25 percent Egyptian support, rise to the top, to run the country? Can the army, for nearly 30 years maintained by US (currently US contributes $1.3B a year for army and $250M for civilian welfare) provide a provisional order pending development of civilian ruled democracy? Should Mubarak’s attempt to hold on be passively supported? The example of events in Iran, a more violent country, shows what can happen in the Middle East, and President Obama has to tread very carefully and send possibly mixed signals to cover all contingencies.
The prisoners of Guantanamo are another problem, left unsolved. No one wants to accept them for resettlement.
The bailout of banks and stock exchange firms was necessitated the collapse of the mortgage backed securities resulting from the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act (Banking Act) of 1933 which separated the investment bank, retail bank and insurance company activities . The decontrol started in 1980 with the Depository Institution Deregulation in 1980, and was completed with the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act of 1999, with the latter enjoying support of both political parties.
Discussions of US budget abuses inherited in the current recession/ depression are overworked, except to mention that all the cures involve reducing government expenses offered by both parties work directly counter to the main problem, jobs, reducing employment by literally hundreds of thousands of employees in discontinued functions. The most notable solution that involves reduction of social benefits, offered by Paul D. Ryan, (R., WI), chairman of the House Budget Committee, appears to identify reduction of Social Security and Medicare benefits affecting those under age 55. The continuation of these benefits has been strongly supported by voters of all three parties (80. 80 and 79 percent) and a cut will lot fly. To salvage the budget, it appears that many of us will have to bite the bullet.
But, Green Bay, the smallest team, won Super Bowl, surely a hopeful sign for all of us.
Labels: Farouk, kermit Roosevelt, Khomeini, Mossadegh, Nasser, Resa Pahlavi
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 6:04 AM 
