This week was another smooth transition of the President of the United States. It seems that a transition of power in most countries doesn’t go well. They seem to be accompanied by by violence, assassinations, and military coups, with the citizens always being the ones getting the short shrift. In our case, the past president kind of slips out of town while the new president takes the oath of office and the whole affair being celebrated. I’m very happy to live where we have this blessing.

President Obama takes office with a country holding extraordinarily high expectations of him and what he can do. He’s in the middle of a very serious economic situation that will definitely continue to get worse. Anything that he or his administration can do will take six months to a year before it can have any effect. I’m hoping that Americans will have sufficient patience.

We’re also up to our necks in two wars … Iraq and Afghanistan. The war in Iraq has turned the corner, but President Obama has announced that we’ll pull out within 18 months or thereabouts. Unfortunately, I think that’s too quickly and will leave the job unfinished. That has two problems. First, it reaffirms to our enemies that they can just wait us out. All they need to do is just inflict enough pain so that we get tired and quit. Secondly, unfinished business always comes back, often in horrific ways.

Afghanistan requires direct and massive attention. The problem there is Pakistan which is providing safe haven for the Taleban. The government there is fragile and there is a very restive India on the other side. President Obama has appointed Richard Holbrooke to handle diplomatic relations in that area. He’s a fine statesman and he has my prayers. However, this whole area is a powder keg and has the possibility to blow up, probably on our own soil. The American people won’t have much patience with that, either.

And then there’s the middle east. Israel has just withdrawn from Gaza where they have been waging a war with the militant Palestinian Hamas regime. One big problem is that the Palestinians have been launching Ossam rockets into Israel … thousands of them. When Israel finally had enough of this, they crossed into Gaza to close the tunnels from Egypt being used to supply the arms to Hamas and to stop the rocket launches. However, because Israel hasn’t done a very good job of publicizing the incoming rockets, they get roundly chastised by the international community for invading Gaza. Some of the information about the rockets is making its way to YouTube … here’s an example … watching the kids run to bomb shelters (they’ve 15 seconds to get there) is heart-rending. The middle east will be a serious thorn in the new administration’s side and again, there are no short-term answers.

Although I didn’t vote for our new President, and I’m very concerned about the slippery socialism slope where we seem to be headed, I will pray for him, and support him in all ways possible. He’s also on a honeymoon here with me as he is with the rest of America. God bless him and his staff. He seems to have put some good people into place (as well as a few he better keep a close eye on!) to advise him and run the various departments.

The blog software we’re using (WordPress) has a new release of software available. I’ve installed it on my blogs as well as on my favorite brother’s blog (perry.rnsmith.com). The look is different, but I’m liking the new interface. It seems to be quite a bit faster, as well. Next week I’ll roll it out to the rest of the blogs that I support.