TOPICS : How fares Obama’s multi-tasking?
During the presidential election campaign, one of Barack Obama’s interrogators asked
him how, with his lack of international expertise, he could handle foreign problems as well as domestic challenges. The then-senator replied, a little tartly, that the presidency required being a “multi-tasker,” able to handle several crises at a time. Just 16 days into his presidency, Obama has proved to be an able multi-tasker, juggling domestic and foreign issues simultaneously. At home, he is handling one of the most critical economic challenges the United States has faced in decades.
Abroad he has set a new pace and tone in international diplomacy with a series of dramatic moves: He ordered the Guantánamo facility holding suspected terrorists and sympathizers closed within a year; he ordered that, except under extraordinary circumstances, interrogation of suspected terrorists henceforth be carried out in accordance with the US Army field manual. He appointed a heavyweight envoy, former Sen. George Mitchell, famed for his conciliatory work in Northern Ireland, to work for settlement of the years-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He sent tough diplomat Richard Holbrooke, known for his peacemaking work in the Balkans, to tackle the war in Afghanistan, and the problem of Al Qaeda and Taliban redoubts in Pakistan. In a remarkable gesture to the world of Islam, he chose to give his first media interview to the Saudi-funded Arab TV network Al Arabiya.
We are on the brink of elections in Israel that may very well install Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the opposition Likud party, in the prime minister’s office. Netanyahu is a tough politician with little inclination for peace talks with the divided Palestinians. Senator Mitchell may soon be reflecting nostalgically on the green meadows of Ireland as he seeks concord between Hamas and Netanyahu over the sun-scorched, battle-seared Palestinian territories. Then there is Iran. Will President Obama’s proffer of “respect” be enough to dissuade Iran from pursuing what it says it is not doing - namely manufacturing a nuclear bomb?
What of North Korea, that on-and-off again negotiator over its nuclear program with the US and others? The war in Afghanistan is not going well. In Pakistan, refurbished Taliban and Al Qaeda forces are taunting a shaky government in Islamabad with apparent impunity. Nor can America ignore the challenge of helping countries that are not of strategic interest. Zimbabwe and the Sudan are affronts to the civilised world. The African continent is beset by the ravages of AIDS. Economic growth goes hand in hand with enlightened government. The news in this regard is not good. Freedom House, the organisation dedicated to tracking the course of democracy in some 200 countries and territories, recently reported that freedom retreated in much of the world in 2008. The world is no less troubled with Obama in the White House. A charm offensive will not alone make the difference. — The Christian Science Monitor