Sunday, November 5, 2006
(Remember, remember, the 5th of November)
[1885 - Will (William J.) Durant, writer, historian, born in North Adams, Massachusetts]
[1911 - Roy Rogers, singing cowboy, born in Cincinnati, Ohio]
[1930 - Sinclair Lewis wins Nobel Prize for Literature]
(First American to win the prize)
Popular Mandates Revisited
Newly-elected Presidents George Bush and Hamid Karzai held victory press conferences about two years ago. President Karzai reached out to the former Taliban, whereas President Bush reached out to the Democrats. Neither President has made much progress in healing the deep divisions that polarize their respective countries. The resurgent Taliban are fighting a determined resistance in Southeast Afghanistan. The Democrats have not responded favorably to the Bush "My way or the highway" approach to reconciliation.
President Bush promised to do something about Social Security and to simplify the tax code. President Karzai said he would crack down on the Regional War Lords that control most of his country, and put a stop to the opium and heroin farming (Afghanistan is the worlds largest source of these two illegal drugs). Both men pledged a continuing war on terror. None of those promises have been kept.
Afghanistan's capitol city, Kabul, is an armed enclave subject to terrorist attacks, and only marginal progress has been made in controlling the war lords and the drug traffic in that country. This year's opium harvest was a new record for Afghanistan. Foreign troops in large numbers (three times what it took to bring about regime change) are needed to maintain a modicum of security in the country. Our own US troops are still dying there in increasing numbers.
President Bush's Social Security privatization attempt was DOA. The tax reform blue-ribbon panel delivered its report, which seemed rather tame after all the bally-hoo. It is unclear what parts of it will survive an increasingly skeptical Congress. As for the war on terror, the US death toll in Iraq for the month of October 2006 (105) was the fourth highest since the war began, and the administration has demonstrated that it is incapable of protecting or rescuing New Orleans from a natural disaster, even with a week's warning. One shudders to think of what could happen in the event of a major terrorist strike with no warning.
William's Whimsical Words:
Our President has not talked much about political capital or mandates recently.
to Fall 2006
to Almanack Main Page
