the precautionary principle

Some brief notes to the incoming Obama administration.

Forget pursuing the Bushites for crimes against humanity. At least during your first term. There's too much to do, trying Bush/Cheney et al. for war crimes will just waste needed political capital. You'll need to be able to muster all the support you can just to even come close to solving our ever deepening economic strife. Besides, in four years, more and more of those involved will have come forth (as they did this week) with self-incriminating evidence of wrong doing. Let them bring the darkest secrets to light first and then hold them accountable to the rule of law. Which brings us to the next agenda item.

Tim Geithner must not be the Treasury Secretary. Allowing Geithner to proceed sends the message that if you cheat, and then lie, and then lie repeatedly, it's OK - if you're a politician; the rest of America can take a fall. Sorry, President-elect Obama, we just lived through 8 years of this kind of bullshit and we don't need your endorsement of the same. Mr. Geithner paid (or in this case didn't) his money and now he should take his choice (or rather be denied it).

Hillary Clinton will have a hard time solving the Middle East conflict. Her experience indicates that she waffles to the Jewish tune, like most American politicians, and thus a solution won't be forthcoming. The Jews, once victims of internment camps, seem to have forgotten how growing up in a concentration camp tends to seal one's mind into an intractable wasteland of bitterness and hatred. The downside of this for America is just how far-reaching this conflict extends into our own country and adds to our inability to solve our own problems. The Israelis are the ones who could likely send the Middle East into the precursor of WWWIII. What would Jesus/Abraham/Mohammad do then?

We also hope the memebers of the Obama administration have read Dexter Filkins, The Forever War, or if they prefer fiction, Sterling Lawrence's, Montengegro. Because if they haven't, this new administration just might believe that it's possible to transfer 30,000 troops from Iraq into Afghanistan and win the hearts and minds of tribal Afghanis.