Walking a Tightrope

President Obama is in for the most delicate (and critical) week of his brief presidency. Persuading a number of resistant powers to join his efforts to restore our global economy and to resist Al Qaeda on the borders of Pakistan/Afghanistan will be no easy task. Our stock has not been lower in world opinion since the era of Wilson in his dotage and there are local pragmatic reasons for many nations not to join our efforts.

Some things to hope for:

1) that Obama will be able to make clear the fact that we are resisting the mad fringe of Islamic terror and not Islam entire. I don't think Hillary's impulse towards nation building on the American model is the way to go. The Middle Eastern nations need to solve their problems in their own ways. We can't hope to succeed in imposing our ours on them. Iraq may have to split up its artificial unity to achieve relative peace there. Our military presence is simply a goad to those supported by Al Qaeda.

2) that some beginnings may be made to restore American financial intentions from our recent global Ponzi game approach to others -- no easy task.

We shall see -- and wish Obama the best. I think the world does view him as decent guy -- some change from what we have had.
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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