Columnist - Howell Dennis

Howell Dennis

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Well this is the week. For six months now I’ve been waiting to see how President Barack Obama would handle his first real tests as our nation’s leader. I didn’t expect so many of them to occur at once but when you are the leader of the free world you can’t expect things to come at you at your own convenience – and boy have these past few days presented our country with a variety of simultaneous crises.
First and foremost, at least in my mind, is the history that is being made in the streets of our longtime nemesis Iran. I recall last week, just a couple of days before they held their elections, thinking “boy is this ever going to be rigged.” No way that Ahmadinajad guy is going to be removed from office. After all, this man has been the person who seemed to be the spokesman for the people in Iran for the past several years, and man, has he ever created some tension. Trying to gain access to nuclear power which he says he doesn’t intend to use for weapons – yeah right! Making outlandish statements that the Holocaust never happened and that Israel should simply be wiped off the map certainly caught the attention of world leaders and created worry across the Mideast and beyond.
Well, as it turns out, he wasn’t speaking for the people of Iran after all. In fact, from what I have seen he has never really been the leader of Iran. That duty obviously falls upon a man I had never seen before this past weekend. In Iran, though they claim to be a democracy, the buck stops with a Muslim cleric named Ayatollah Ali Khameni. When hundreds of thousands of protesters hit the streets to voice their complaints about the highly questionable results of the election, which not only claimed that Ahmadinajad (I hope I keep spelling that right) had won the election but had done so in a landslide vote, this Ayatollah came out and not only said that Ahmadinajad had won the election, but he warned the protesters that they faced dire circumstances if they continued to demonstrate. They haven’t stopped and the Iranian leadership has responded violently, killing a “reported” total of 19 people over the weekend – though most estimates have that total much higher. Of course the Iranian leadership did what they always do – blame the United States, England, and all the western countries for inciting these people. However, this time that excuse just isn’t going to fly. When your national soccer team plays a game wearing the green color of the opposition candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, on their sweatbands, well, I seriously doubt the U.S. had any influence over that.
Thus far Obama has responded with caution, not wanting to fan the flames of anti-American sentiment with the government that won the election while still voicing his displeasure over the Iranian leadership attacking their own people. He may have been getting by with this for the past few days but eventually he will have to respond with a much more stern voice and possibly some course of action. How he handles this situation is going to have a large influence in forming the world’s first opinion of our new president’s strength.
Now in another part of the world, another of our old friends – North Korea – has a ship traveling very strategically down the coast of China. Nobody knows what this ship’s cargo may be but it is known that this ship has carried nuclear materials in the past. We have been following this ship, which has been very careful not to go into international waters, closely with a destroyer and an F-15. The ship’s destination is unknown (it has been stated that the United States will not allow the ship to deliver nuclear materials to another U.S. foe) but N. Korea’s leader, Kim Jung Il, has said that any provocation of this ship will be viewed as an act of war. It has been well-publicized that North Korea is making no secrets about its desire to possess nuclear weapons and though it is believed that they have yet to build one that is capable of reaching the United States mainland – the citizens of Hawaii have been watching the developments of this situation very closely. Now I personally think that this is just an attempt to taunt the U.S. but you never know. Stay tuned.
Also, this past weekend, just as our country has been attempting to shift the war in the Middle East from Iraq to Afghanistan, the largest bombing in over a year killed upwards of 80 (and still counting) Iraqis and injured more than 200. No one has yet to claim responsibility for the blast but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that Al Qaida seems to have reared its ugly head again. Personally I think they are worried that by us shifting the war to Afghanistan, we are getting closer to their notorious leaders – Al Zarqawi and, of course, Osama Bin Laden – and they want to direct our attention back to Iraq. However, there is no denying that this has dampened the spirits of anyone who has thought that we have made great strides in Iraq and may be able to remove most of our forces from there in the near future.
Oh, and by the way, speaking of Afghanistan, our troops were involved in a major firefight with the Taliban this past weekend in that country and CNN reported last night that this was a sign that we may be in for a much tougher time in that country than we had anticipated.
Even Obama’s most ardent critics admit that he is an extremely talented and eloquent speaker. However, the time for words seems to have come to an end. It’s time for action. How President Obama handles these situations – along with health care, education, and all of the other issues that he and McCain argued about - will go a long way towards forming the world’s opinion of him and the strength of America’s convictions.
As I write this column it is 5 a.m. Monday morning, I am suffering from another one of my usual bouts of insomnia which isn’t helped by the fact that I have a terrible case of sunburn at the moment. I am also leaving for a five-day vacation Wednesday evening so if this column runs Sunday I’m sure there will be some major developments in each of these situations which will hopefully work out in our favor. President Obama, if this were high school, it is obvious that you have passed Public Speaking with flying colors.
However, it is now time to see if you are capable of passing the much tougher classes as well.

Howell Dennis is a native of Lafayette, La. He attended the University of Texas at Arlington where he graduated in journalism and public relations.