Barack Obama won the recent presidential election convincingly, and it is time now for all Americans to rally around the next commander-in-chief. We need to offer our support and prayers. He will certainly need them as he and his team cope with the problems and challenges that await him.
Few American Presidents have inherited problems of the magnitude that Obama faces. Many of those problems are blamed on his predecessor, even though they are at least as much the fault of Congress—but placing blame is not a productive use of time and energy at this point.
It will come as a surprise to no one who knows me that President-elect Obama was not my choice. During the campaign, I and many others expressed concern over his lack of experience and thin political resume. I also criticized his very liberal voting record while in the Illinois legislature and during his partial term in the U.S. Senate.
But Obama campaigned hard and brilliantly, and his message of hope and change resonated, especially with young voters who turned out in record numbers. He also was dominant in the presidential debates over an earnest—but rather stiff and uninspiring—Senator John McCain, whose campaign never really seemed to gather momentum. His reputation as a maverick could not overshadow the widespread perception that he represented four more years of the much-maligned President George W. Bush.
It is widely reported, and the public believes, that the most urgent task of the new President is to deal with the sick economy and broken financial system. Urgent as that task may be, the security of the United States must be his number one priority. As Obama has wisely said, a President must be able to deal with more than one crisis at a time. Still, threats must be prioritized and resources allocated accordingly.
Americans will survive the current depression as they have others. Hopefully we will emerge stronger. The financial system will be repaired in time. But the threat that terrorism poses, and our vulnerability to it, will remain for the foreseeable future.
Some authorities assign a 50 percent or higher probability of a major act of terrorism in the United States in the next five years. President Bush, to his credit, has kept us free from domestic attacks since 9/11. Many have been thwarted thanks to intelligence and the much-demonized Patriot Act. That could change in an instant.
We remain particularly vulnerable with respect to so-called soft targets like malls, hospitals, churches, and schools, which are very difficult to secure. Imagine the panic that would result from the use of biological or chemical agents or nuclear devices. These are not unrealistic scenarios. Ask any reputable expert on terrorism.
The decision to give the Department of Defense a greater role in homeland security and to train the military to respond to domestic terrorist attacks is long overdue. Hopefully President-elect Obama will support it. Critics will warn of the dangers of a militarized society, pointing to the outdated Posse Comitatus Act, which restricts the military role in domestic law enforcement.
But terrorists will blow themselves up to kill innocent Americans for the purpose of weakening and eventually destroying our society. Combating them is not just a matter of law enforcement. It is the new reality of warfare, and it needs to be met with all the resources we can muster—including those of the military. Those overextended resources need to be increased, especially if the military mission is expanded.
Obama's selections for his national security team are reassuring. Retaining Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is especially prudent, given the need for continuity as we wind down in Iraq and confront a worsening situation in Afghanistan. The appointment of former Marine Corps Commandant General James Jones as National Security Adviser also suggests that Obama takes the threats to our security very seriously.
All Americans should.