OBAMA is the first African-American US President and also the first to inherit 3 ¥2 warsone volcanic (economy), two hot (Iraq and Afghanistan) and ¥> simmering (Mexico).

Economic War

US financial sector's collapse last September helped Obama win the presidency. His priority is reviving the economy through reforms on jobs, housing and credit flows.

Saving and/or creating jobs, of which 3.6 million were lost since December 2007, is the aim of the massive $787 billion package Obama approved on 17 February that "will invest in... energy, education, health care, and a new infrastructure... to keep us strong and competitive in the 21st century." Most prominent US economists support this stimulus.

Obama unveiled a $275-billion program on 19 February to help nine million homeowners facing foreclosure and increase availability of mortgages, since the housing mess was "...unraveling the middle class and the American Dream itself.”

The biggest problem is getting the banks to lend which means persuading them to sell their bad assets at an acceptable discount to the original value, thus minimizing their equity erosion and the need to raise new capital. To sweeten the deal and unfreeze credit, Treasury Secretary Geithner announced a public-private plan on 23 March to buy up to $2 trillion of bad loans and mortgage-related assets by offering investors up to 93% of the purchase price at cheap rates and little risk Nobody knows if these programs will succeed. But if throwing money at a problem solves it, these measures should help. Otherwise, the world recession will worsen.

Iraq War

Winding down an unpopular war helps Obama He was prescient or lucky not to support the war and benefits from Bush's "surge" that has made withdrawal practicable by August 2010. So a war fought on false pretences humbling the younger Bush and scarring US reputation worldwide will, unlike Vietnam, be brought to an honourableend.

Afghanistan War

During his campaign, Obama criticized Bush's Afghan policy as "unfocused” (bringing democracy) and allocating insufficient resources (men and money). On 26 March, Obama announced his Afghan policy whose aim is "to disrupt, dismantle and eventually destroy al-Qaeda in Pakistan" and allocated more money and men to achieve it.

Titis aim is both interesting and odd. Interesting, because it is an undeclared war against the Pakistani state and the US, for the first time, is targeting a non government viscerally anti-American organization with a bizarre ideology for military destruction.

Odd, because senior CIA officials claimed on 2 February '09 tliat drones have "decimated" al-Qaida's leadership in Pakistan (Tom Gjelten, intelligence and