Congratulations President Obama, you are now the proud owner of the following messes:
Afghanistan - A significant but hopelessly small American military presence sits in the middle of what is beginning to look like an ethnic civil war. This one has been getting worse of late and our response has been counterproductive and frequently fatal to a good deal of civilians. As if on cue, we bombed a wedding on Monday night and killed 40 innocent people.
Iraq - A large American military presence in the middle of an ongoing civil war (which we caused). It’s calmed down a bit but the underlying causes have not been addressed and you can safely assume that our exit will not be completely clean. It will be messy and in this case “messy” means things like dead children. The sooner you can get us out the better.
Guantanamo Bay - An illegal prison under US authority contains roughly 250 men who have been detained and tortured for years. Some of them are probably guilty of terrible crimes but it will difficult to prosecute them because of the reckless incompetence of your predecessor. Others are likely innocent of any serious wrongdoing but as a result of their imprisonment may now be dangerous to themselves or others. They must be released in a way that mitigates any future harm they can do. I’d personally recommend cash and an apology.
Prosecutions - While we’re on the subject of your incompetent predecessor, a large number of his current and former subordinates are likely guilty of a number of crimes, domestic (wiretapping, torture, perjury) and international (war crimes, torture). It’s possible that your predecessor himself could be criminally liable for a number of things as well. Dealing with that in a just manner without alienating a substantial minority of the country (on either side) is going to be a fine tightrope act and it will come at you almost immediately.
Recession - The economy contracted last quarter, and that was before the banks melted down and took Wall Street with them. The federal budget is a mess state and local governments are in even worse shape and will likely need significant assistance. Banking and insurance regulations will need significant and politically controversial attention. Hey, speaking of insurance . . .
Medical Care - The system we use to deliver medical care to ordinary people is deeply inequitable, patently unfair and needlessly complex. Reforming it is a vital necessity but it will at least appear to be hideously expensive and will be opposed by a number of well established and deep pocketed interests who profit from the current system. This list includes, but is not limited to, pharmaceutical companies, insurance conglomerates, and the politicians they own (many of whom are in your own party).
Global Warming - There is a significant consensus that we have only a few years to begin to seriously reverse some of our more boneheaded policies regarding emissions of greenhouse gases. Failure to adequately address this problem will, quite literally, kill millions of people and damage the lives of billions more. It is generally assumed that addressing these problems will have negative economic consequences and though this is likely false just combating that assumption is a huge task.
This list is by no means complete, but these are the most pressing problems bequeathed to you. It’s a daunting list, but quite frankly I don’t think it’s as dire as is generally assumed. I have only one reason for my possibly foolish optimism, but it is a very good one.
For eight years the levers of federal power have been controlled by people who seem to be almost deliberately inept at their jobs. The chaos and destruction wrought by their reckless and relentless ineptitude has soured the mood of the country to one of its lowest points ever. But that all ended last night. While we don’t yet know the full extent of the messes they created, we can be pretty confident that just raising the quality of federal decision makers to that of mere competence will produce immediate and tangible improvements. Should you and the people you appoint turn out to actually be good at your jobs well . . . the sky’s the limit.
