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Friday, January 30, 2009

[mukto-mona] President Obama’s first 10 days

Dear Editor,
 
Hope are doing well and thanks for publishing my previous write ups.
 
This is an article titled "President Obama's first 10 days". I will be highly honoured if you publish this article. I apprecite your time to read this article.
 
Thanks
 
Have a nice time
 
With Best Regards
 
Ripan Kumar Biswas
New York, U.S.A
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President Obama's first 10 days

 

Ripan Kumar Biswas

Ripan.Biswas@yahoo.com

 

That was a beautiful day of full of tears and laughter of joy all around the world while he was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States and again that was a beautiful day for his young administration as the Democratic-controlled House approved a historically huge $819 billion stimulus bill on Wednesday, January 28, 2009.

 

Casting the late night waltzing with his wife Michelle at glitzy inaugural balls aside, President Barack H. Obama moved vigorously following his inauguration saying that his administration wouldn't keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears. From his first act as President, a proclamation declaring a national day of renewal and reconciliation and calling on Americans to serve one another, to the latest stimulus bill, Obama got down to the business of the state swiftly with his call "Change We Need."

 

Although his goal of bipartisanship was denied as every Republican opposed the landmark bill and all but 11 of his fellow Democrats in the House supported the bill to combat the worst economic crisis since the great depression, but this is a victory of Obama by which he scored his first major legislative victory. The stimulus package, which was sharply divided by U.S. House of Representatives on a 244-188 vote, is yet to be confirmed by the Senate on early next week, but US market jumped 2.5 percent or almost 200 points because of the package.

 

With a popularity rating of nearly 70% and with control of both houses of Congress, Obama's first week in power was a whirl of activity from fixing the daunting economy to overhauling healthcare, weaning the nation from foreign oil, or combating with climate change.

 

His first move came in the criminal law arena-- an order via Defense Secretary Robert Gates to military prosecutors in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals to request a 120 day stay in all pending cases on Thursday, January 22, 2009. The stay will allow the Obama administration a chance to review all the pending cases. He also ordered a review of military trials for terror suspects and a ban on harsh interrogation methods. Obama believed Americans will be safer with the prison closed. It took a quick pen stroke for him to order the 120 days stay. Implementing the directive, however, could prove lengthy, complicated, and politically divisive.

 

And the first blow came on January 29, 2009 when military Chief Judge Col. James Pohl at Guantanamo war crimes court has defied President Barack Obama by rejecting his request to suspend a hearing for terrorist suspect saying that the law underpinning the tribunals gives the presiding judges sole authority to delay cases. Pohl denied the motion put forward by the prosecution to suspend the trial of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is one of the aliases of the Saudi al-Qaeda member, is accused of involvement in the bombing of the USS Cole off Yemen in 2000 and due to enter his plea before the military commission on Feb 9. The al-Qaeda-inspired attack on the Cole left 17 people dead and injured many more.

 

Critics believe that President does since he didn't order them to stop just politely requested that they cooperate with him in his attempt uphold international law. Although Col. Pohl's decision is acutely embarrassing for the new president, but Obama's conciliatory tone toward the Islamic world is a part of a concerted effort to repair relations with the Muslim world that were damaged under the previous administration.

Showing his broader outreach to the Muslim world, which includes a promise to make a major address from the capital of a Muslim nation, Obama offered a bold change to America's relations with the Muslim world. "My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy," Obama expressed his new administration's desire in his first formal television interview as President to a Dubai based 24-hour Arabic-language news channel, Al Arabiya on Monday, January 26, 2009.

 

While President Obama presented a humble and conciliatory face of America to the Islamic world and expressed his commitment to tackling the Middle East peace process immediately, Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan said that President Barack Obama's position toward the Palestinians didn't represent change and would lead to the same mistakes as his predecessor. Citing Obama's first public comments on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis on January 22, 2009—"Hamas must end rocket fire at Israel, and Israel must complete the withdrawal of its forces from Gaza," Hamdan told Al-Jazeera television that they would expect Obama's administration and European nations to experience failure in the region over the next four years if they would stick with their current position.

 

The Obama presidency is only over one week old, but it has already limned its main moral outlines. Although according to the Sen. Boehner (R), the stimulus bill which was gifted to President Obama by the Democratically-controlled House, is a bipartisan rejection of a partisan bill, or the Judge Pohl's decision that challenges Obama's plans to seek delays in the 21 cases before military tribunals at Guantanamo, or questions arise  how Obama's administration will repair America's relations with the Muslim World, but there was no questions or criticism when Obama signed an ambitious, double-barreled assault on global warming and U.S. energy woes.

 

"To protect our climate and our collective security, we must call together a truly global coalition," President Obama said at the occasion of signing two executive orders on combating climate change in the East Room of the White House in Washington, January 26, 2009. Obama outlined his policy on tackling climate change and reducing his country's dependency on imported oil. "My administration will not deny facts; we will be guided by them." Obama acknowledges that global warming is a reality, not mere conjecture and America will not be held hostage to dwindling resources, hostile regimes, and a warming planet. By the order, Obama's administration will begin reversing the climate policies of the Bush administration and will clear the way for new rules to force automakers to produce more fuel-efficient and less polluting cars. It also already directed the Department of Transportation to set boost fuel efficiency standards for automobiles by March 30 for model year 2011, giving manufacturers 18 months to prepare.

 

Obama's steps toward climate changes were likely to be well received in Europe and also drew praise from environmentalists. While Population Action International (a lobbying organization for government involvement in population control), praised Obama's decision to cut international funding for family planning. Obama struck down a rule that prohibited U.S. money from funding international family-planning clinics that promote abortion or provide counseling or referrals about abortion services on January 23, 2009. "For too long, international family planning assistance has been used as a political wedge issue," he said.

 

Americans are eager for information about the state of the economy, national security and a host of other issues and they think Obama is leading the country in a different direction; it's not the same-old-same-old way. The world witnessed the inauguration of President Barack H Obama, and his first attempts to make good on campaign promises. Though with just a few words and strokes of his pen, the president ended the war on terror, the war on Islam, the war on science and the war on women, but according to the former US President Jimmy Carter, President Obama is doing just great.

 

 

January 30, 2009, New York

Ripan Kumar Biswas is a freelance writer based in New York

 

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