Perils of the President (062609) by J. F. Kelly, Jr

There is no question that President Barack Obama was dealt a difficult hand to play but play it he must. He is not the first president to inherit grave problems and he, after all, asked for the job. There are many crises, foreign and domestic, competing for presidential attention. The pressures must be enormous, not only on the president, on whose desk the buck stops, but also on his still understaffed administration. When problems and crises overwhelm, prioritization becomes critical. In the current environment, prioritization must be governed, not by political agendas, interest group demands and campaign promises, but by the imminence and gravity of the threats using risk assessment methodology. There is too much at stake in terms of clear and present danger to use these crises as opportunities for political gain or domestic agendas. The gravest threat facing the nation now is the consequences of nuclear proliferation among radical Islamic nations, notably Iran. This must be considered the paramount threat because it will greatly change power relationships and introduce a level of irrationality that may render a mutual nuclear deterrence strategy moot. Nuclear-armed Islamic theocracies could raise the war on terrorism to new uncharted levels. Time is running out on diplomatic efforts to dissuade Iran from acquiring nukes which is why Mr. Obama should have done more to encourage regime change there. His reasons for restraint were twofold, neither of them persuasive. First, he wanted to avoid having the U.S. accused of fomenting protests and disorder. We were blamed anyway, even before his first cautious responses to the election results. Second, he wanted to keep avenues open for discussions with the current regime if it survived. But the current regime has said unequivocally that the “book is closed” on the nuclear issue. And given that regime’s repressive actions, we should avoid doing anything that legitimizes them. Obama’s second priority must be our economy which remains a disaster owing to years of spending, both by consumers and by the ruling classes, far beyond our means. Surviving the current recession is only part of the challenge. American politicians and consumers must change their spending and saving habits or else resign themselves to a declining role for America in the world power structure. Social Security and Medicare are rapidly going broke. In spite of repeated warnings to this effect, the impact seems lost on Americans who live largely for the present. The federal government spends substantially more than it takes in year after year, each annual deficit adding to the staggering national debt, held mostly by China. Out-of-control spending by successive congresses and years of lax oversight of credit and securities markets are mostly responsible for the mess that we are in now. That mess has been made immeasurably worse by the Obama stimulus package and proposed budget including a health care package conservatively priced at $1.6 trillion ($1,600,000,000,000). The debt burden is now so immense that the service on it alone will soon squeeze out most discretionary spending including defense at a time when more defense spending, not less, will surely be required. This will be a crushing load for future generations. Moreover, China, our principal creditor, is expressing concern about our ability to repay. Mr. Obama cannot be faulted for attempting to stimulate the moribund economy. But the cure may well kill the patient. The first rule should have been to purge the program of pork. That rule was broken. The second rule should have been to inflict no harm on future generations who are not to blame for our excesses. We have broken that rule as well and saddled them with a huge debt that they must repay. For an administration that is so vocally committed to preserving the planet, its climate and resources for future generations, they are leaving those generations precious little in the way of fiscal integrity or hope for a sound economic future. America has been blamed, unfairly at times, for its aggressive policies in pursuit of the war on terrorism. It is now being blamed for the worldwide recession. Given our reckless spending and profligate use of credit, the latter blame is not entirely misplaced. Copyright 2009 by J. F. Kelly, Jr. Dr. Kelly is a retired Navy Captain and bank senior vice-president. A veteran of over thirty years of naval service, he commanded three ships and the Navy Personnel Research and Development Center in San Diego. He joined Great American Bank in 1983, serving first as Training and Development Director and later as Director of Human Resources. He retired from the bank in 1994 and has since devoted his efforts to community services. He served as foreman of the San Diego County Grand Jury in 1997-1998, president of the Lions Club of San Diego, the San Diego Council of the Navy League of the United States, the Lions Foundation, the Boys and Girls Foundation, Vice-president of the City of San Diego Salary setting commission and as chairman of the Business Council of the San Diego County Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention Task Force. He currently serves on the board of the Boys and Girls Foundation and the Coronado Roundtable. He currently teaches ship handling, seamanship and navigation at the Naval Base, San Diego. A freelance writer, his weekly column on current events appears in the California Republic, the Coronado EagleJournal, eCoronado.com and other publications. Dr. Kelly has degrees in education, management and leadership including a doctor of education degree from the University of San Diego. He and his wife, the former Charlane Hughes, reside in Coronado.