November’s election week is coming to an end. What will be the first and the most important challenge for the new U.S. President?
World’s biggest and undisputably only superpower, the USA, will elect its first citizen. Some of you must be really apprehensive since this first person might turn out to be the first woman in history to carve her name in golden letters of the American melting-pot.
While electoral discussions, disagreements and discourses will continue till the next President poses for his/her 1st picture after winning, what we all are enthusiastically looking forward to is what the soon-to-be Ex-President once said during one of his addresses – “Change, Change, Change”.
Although we all are still at conflict on our positions on what changes should take place, one thing that drops our jaws yet raises our brows frequently is “Why is the US playing mute on its old-new battleground, the Middle-East, even after the Iran-backed Russian air strikes in Syria?”
This lukewarm response is terrifying because a potential war wouldn’t be between just two highly advanced militaries but also between two former rivals, both ideologically and politically. What has changed in these ‘five past five’ decades is the base; then it was Cuba, now it is Iran. a potential change should occur here.
Once upon a time
Long long ago, even before the Great War (WW1), a young French Aristocrat of the 19th century by the name of Alexis De Toqueville wrote in his seminal work “Democracy in America” that-
“There are now two great nations in the world, which starting from different points, seem to be advancing toward the same goal: the Russians and the Anglo-Americans… Each seems called by some secret design of Providence one day to hold in its hands the destinies of half the world.”
The book was published circa 1835 (a good 100 years before WW2 started).
Wartime relations between the United States and the Soviet Union can be considered to be one of the highpoints in the longstanding interaction between these two great powers. After the war, in the bipolar climate of 1950s-90s, disputes between the Soviet Union and the Western democracies, particularly over the Soviet takeover of East European states, led Winston Churchill to warn in 1946 that an “iron curtain” was descending through the middle of Europe.
Election week or the dawn of political renaissance?
If the current political winds were to be observed carefully, it’s only rational to predict the “dawn of political renaissance”. So what’s this “political renaissance” all about? It’s nothing but the revival of a previously viral political pattern. In the cold war era, there was a competition to emerge as a global hegemon in terms of hard, soft and structural power between 2 nations – the US and the former USSR. The struggle was between the communist agenda and the ideology of liberal democracy. The dispute was between capitalism and socialism.
The debate was who’s more powerful – the State or the People. The dilemma was market economy vs planned economy. The threat was nuclear missiles and the ground was Cuba. And yet today we’ve reached the same point on the circle from where we had started. The same nations, the same rivalry, the same threat, the same lust for power and territory yet a different war zone. With each step advanced by Russia in the Middle-East, we see communist leitmotiv being planted firmly on the land of appalling dictatorship.
Why are you silent about Syria?
What’s even more agonizing is Obama’s deliberate silence on Syria both dialogue and defense wise. If Saddam Hussain’s undemocratic and tormenting regime could be overthrown by the US for common good then, why is there no military intervention in the bloody, indiscriminate massacre in the Syrian Civil War?
Why be a silent spectator to millions of people becoming homeless, hungry refugees compelled to live in abusive and vulnerable conditions in camps? Why shirk the UN-backed “Responsibility to Protect” civilian citizens from governments committing war crimes against them?
Seems like he’s playing the Cameron card. As was in the case of Brexit, where David chose to burden Theresa May with the controversial and complicated exit plan preparation, Obama believes in a peaceful departure which would be impossible if he opens his mouth or wields his pen to sign anything even remotely related to Syria.
Election week will end in two days, dear President, this is your first challenge
So, what will be the first and the most important challenge for the new US President?
To be precise, “Containment of Communist Expansion in the Middle-East” must be the priority for POTUS. When the whole world is trying to make a smooth transition into democratic setup, embracing changes to make their rigid constitutions more flexible and extending the bounds of freedom for their citizens, the US must ascertain that no one tries to root out the very essence of democracy – liberty.
Hopefully, the new President would not only improve the lives of American people but also continue to be the role model and savior of democracy in this highly polarized world.