America, indeed much of the world heaved a sigh of relief today as “Dubbya” walked down the steps of the White House for the very last time aided by the 44th President, Barack Hussein Obama.
¨This way Mr. ex-President,
down those steps, and just keep walking…¨
Now the real work starts because Obama has one heck of a mess to sort out. As the full extent of “Dubbya” and his posse of Neocon crooks’ incompetence and dishonesty becomes apparent, Obama’s job will seem increasingly more difficult. After all, many observers agree that Bush has done far more harm to the US (and to the rest of the world) than Osama Bin Laden could even dream of.
For example, the US debt situation is indeed truly staggering. The war in Iraq is currently haemorrhaging the US economy at an estimated $5000 per second, according to the New York Times (and many other sources):- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/opinion/23kristof.html. That’s a little under half a billion dollars a day (well $432,000,000 actually). So it is not entirely surprising that the proverbial cupboard is a tad bare.
Of course there are those who argue that the war in Iraq was a really good idea and that a jolly good war always boosts the economy. The occasional nutter will even try to tell you that it is a “crusade“, “God’s will” etc! Certainly a few of Bush’s buddies (e.g. former vice president Dick Cheney) have done rather well out of it. But for the rest of the country it is disastrous because the Bush administration has actually financed a significant chunk of this bloody business in a way that actually seriously undermines the economy and could even compromise US national security – by borrowing from China and other foreign countries!
As an innocent, naive little web-footed waterfowl, I cannot help wondering if humanity may be expecting more than just a new president? Seems to me that perhaps we’re somehow wishing for Superman to fly in and use his superhuman powers save us from the bad guys? Sadly, real life is not a Hollywood movie and the current mess may take years or even decades to fix. Nevertheless, Obama seems an intelligent, thoughtful and resourceful fellow and like millions of geese and humans all around the planet, I wish him all the very best.