One Blow After Another

One after another, things are happening in Washington. Suspension of all tribunals in Guantanamo immediately following Obama’s oath of office came hard on the heels of his order to close the infamous American prison camp there. At the same time, the President ordered the Pentagon to come up with “responsible” suggestions for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq within 16 months. He became at least telephonically engaged in the Middle East peace process and named ex-Senator George Mitchell who successfully negotiated the peace in Northern Ireland to be his special envoy for the region. Senate approval of Hillary Clinton’s nomination to be the new Secretary of State practically went unnoticed in all the action. But it didn’t even take 24 hours to see that new rhetoric alone couldn’t solve all the problems, whether it be the renewed bombardment of Gaza by Israeli gunboats or the internal strife in the European Union over whether the EU should accept Guantanamo prisoners so the U.S. could proceed with closure of the facility.

The next minefield Obama will have to negotiate comes on March 5th at the latest, when his Secretary of State will attend a NATO meeting in Brussels. There, she will ask how many additional troops the NATO allies are willing to send to Afghanistan, because Obama also believes the answer to problems in the Hindu Kush can be solved by a troop surge.