ENRIQUE                  

Barack Obama's initiative to denuclearize the world seems to be gaining momentum among nations that desire the removal of these terrible weapons from the face of the planet Earth. Recently, after Obama  UN speech, the main countries in the Security Council took a step toward this aim. They adopted a resolution with the purpose of eliminating all nuclear weapons. It is not going to be, however, an easy goal to attain for world leaders and diplomats, since there are still nations that want to join the nuclear club. These are nations that aspire to be global or regional players. North Korea, for one, has already entered the club, and Iran, despite its denial, may eventually pursue this end . Of course, it is likely these countries are mainly motivated to protect their self-interests, and not by evil intentions or destructive purposes. In such case this is not different from what motivated the United States and the former Soviet Union during the Cold War era. But whatever the outcome be of the UN resolution, this a plus for president B. Obama who proposed total nuclear disarmament on his speech in Prague during the spring.  

Healthcare and Immigration  

One of the top issue in Obama's agenda is healthcare reform. The other is immigration.

Up to now the debate on this issue has been prolonged without a clear indication whether at the end it will succeed or fail. The debate continues in Congress where the opposition to the original bill not only has come from Republicans who have accused Obama of socialistic policies but also from the left wing of the democratic party that has claimed that he conceived too much to satisfy the right wing conservative element. Apparently, some modified form of the bill will eventually pass. But only time can tell whether such bill, if it passes, will satisfy the healthcare needs of every american citizen. There are about 47,000,000 people without healthcare insurance in this country. This is odd for a nation that is the wealthiest in the world. 

Immigration reform has been postponed for the next year. Here Obama, and Congress as well, need to develop a policy and a strategy that give those undocumented immigrants a fair chance to be part of the American dream if they are willing to abide by the rule of law. At the same time those who refuse to do so must understand that there are consequences to pay. This is a touchy issue for Americans who seem to be very divided along ideological lines, some advocating total amnesty for illegal immigrants, others demanding their deportation. For Obama this has to be very problematic. On one side there are those who complain that the immigrants are taking jobs from the American citizen, getting benefits from the government without paying taxes,etc. On the other side we have those who say that the immigrants contribute to the economic growth of the nation with their labor. But the president appears to be handling the issue with caution. Not so bad for a leader who during the presidential campaign was labeled as lacking enough experience to lead.   

The War in Afghanistan and Iraq           

As a presidential candidate Obama promised to bring the troops from Iraq and to increase the war effort in Afghanistan to deter terrorism and protect America from future attacks. So far he has kept part of this promise to certain extent. Iraq is now in charge of its security arrangements, something that has allowed the US army to reduce the presence of troops there. But in Afghanistan the situation is quite different. The Taliban there has been reinforcing and expanding its base and Al Qaida still remains a threat to American security. This fact has forced president Obama to reevaluate his policy and war strategy in that region. But his new approach to the problem is not free from controversies. In this issue he has been criticized from different sides of the political spectrum. There are those who want him to withdraw from Afghanistan and those who think that he should focus on eliminating the terrorist threat and forget the idea of nation-building, i.e., of creating a democratic state there. This, I think, presents a big dilemma for this president. On the one hand, if he opts for withdrawal America status as a superpower will be diminished in the eyes of many. For them a withdrawal will mean an admission that the war was lost.On the other hand, if he decides to concentrate the war effort against terrorist targets alone, the possibility of the conflict escalating exists since neither the Taliban nor Al Qaida seem to be fading from the scene. The consequences in this case will be an increase in war casualties, both Americans and civilians from Afghanistan. This is a very complex situation, which I think Obama is carefully evaluating. 

Overall, in my opinion, in his almost ten months in office Obama has done well. He has been able to restore some confidence in the economy, and in the world scenario his approach to global policies is improving the perception of US among other nations. If  he continues in this direction, he is probably on his way to become, at least, a good leader.