By JAY WINIK | The Wall Street Journal
Now that the grandeur of the inauguration is over, this morning is President Barack Obama’s first in the Oval Office, and the hard work of governing finally begins. More than any president in memory, Mr. Obama has evoked Abraham Lincoln. He made his presidential announcement in Springfield, Ill., where Lincoln once served as a legislator. He copiously read Lincoln histories. He placed his hand yesterday on the Lincoln Bible. But what are the real lessons of Abraham Lincoln for his presidency?
Early on, Lincoln learned that tumult is inherent in governing. Mr. Obama has already declared that he doesn’t want “drama” within his cabinet and staff, but Lincoln’s experience suggests that he should expect precisely that. From the outset of his administration, Lincoln’s secretary of state, William Seward, a former senator from New York, was assiduously scheming against his president. Where Lincoln saw civil war as inevitable, Seward was freelancing, calling for negotiations with the South and privately telling Confederates that their differences could be peacefully resolved.
Then there were Lincoln’s problems with his generals. In 1862, despite Lincoln’s pleading, Gen. George McClellan refused to attack the Confederates. When senators clamored for McClellan to be removed, Lincoln feebly replied, “Whom shall I put in command?” “Well anybody!” Sen. Benjamin Wade told Lincoln. “Well anybody will do for you,” Lincoln said, “but not for me. I must have somebody!”
Only after much wasted time was McClellan finally dismissed. But from there, Lincoln had to contend with a procession of woefully unsatisfactory generals until he eventually found Ulysses S. Grant: He had to fire Ambrose Burnside, get rid of Joseph Hooker, and marginalize George Meade. Even at war’s end, Lincoln was still struggling to forge consensus inside his administration. He outlined his vision for reincorporating the South into the Union, only to meet with fierce resistance from his own cabinet. In one revealing moment, the president sheepishly said, “You are all against me.”
Another lesson from Lincoln is to blend clarity of purpose with steely pragmatism. It was Lincoln and Lincoln alone who had a mystical attachment to the Union, and he was willing to do almost anything to preserve it, even as the body count mounted and it became clear that the sacred struggle would be neither brief nor necessarily victorious. Checking out books from the Library of Congress, the president gave himself a crash course in military strategy, and day after day, year after year, dragged his tired body to the War Department to monitor the progress of Union armies in the field. He hectored his generals constantly to be on the offensive: “hold on with a bulldog grip and chew & choke,” “stand firm,” “hold . . . as with a chain of steel.”
And despite his revulsion for slavery — “if slavery is not wrong then nothing is wrong” — he hesitated to do anything about emancipation lest he jeopardize a fragile Union coalition that included slave-owning states. He even flirted with fantastic schemes to resettle blacks in Liberia. But once an opportunity presented itself to strike a death-blow to slavery, he took it. After the stirring Union victory at Antietam on Sept. 17, 1862, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Though billed as a war measure based on “military necessity,” in one masterful stroke Lincoln imbued the Northern war effort with a larger moral purpose, while becoming a personal emblem of freedom himself.
He was unfailingly pragmatic in his command of military strategy as well. Early in the war he made it a central tenet that the goal of Union generals should be the destruction of Confederate armies. But by 1864, when public support was waning, and it looked as though he might lose his bid for re-election, he allowed Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman to unleash total war on the South — a form of war that Robert E. Lee had adamantly rejected when his armies moved north through Maryland and Pennsylvania. Sherman ravaged Atlanta beyond recognition, sending innocent civilians fleeing the city. He then laid waste to a vast corridor stretching some 400 miles, culminating in the burning of Columbia, S.C. Said one Southerner who witnessed this cloud of destruction and plunder, “We are going to be wiped off the face of the earth.” Sherman was unrepentant, and so was Lincoln.
But Lincoln was never vengeful. Once the tide of the war finally changed, he made sure that the looting and burning ended, particularly when Union armies made their way into North Carolina and Virginia. As Lincoln fatefully told one general, “I would let ’em up easy.”
Perhaps more than anything else, President Obama should learn from Lincoln the importance of perseverance. The fact is that as late as 1864 — well after the battle of Gettysburg, which in hindsight is often seen as the great turning point of the war — the Union was still suffering frightful losses. In six weeks alone during the Wilderness Campaign, Lee inflicted some 52,000 casualties upon Grant’s men, nearly as many soldiers as America would lose in the entire Vietnam War. The single battle of Cold Harbor was an unmitigated bloodbath; 7,000 men slaughtered in under an hour, most of them in the first eight minutes, more than the Confederates lost during Gen. George Pickett’s infamous Gettysburg charge.
A stunned Lincoln declared that the “heavens are hung in black,” and most of the North agreed. By then, some 200,000 troops had deserted the federal Army, and everywhere Lincoln turned there were fervent antiwar rallies. The influential journalist Horace Greeley wrote that “our bleeding, bankrupt, almost dying country longs for peace.” The Democratic Party, headed by former Gen. McClellan, ran on a peace plank.
How easy it would have been at this juncture for Lincoln to give in or compromise, and history might well have celebrated his refusal to subject the North to the continuing blood and wreckage. But a gloomy Lincoln resisted the calls for Grant’s head. Instead, when Grant marched his army across the James River in pursuit of Lee, refusing to retreat as so many other Union generals had done, Lincoln, with tears in his eyes, telegraphed Grant: “I begin to see it: You will succeed. God bless you. A. Lincoln.”
Related to perseverance is the importance of rhetoric — the words that inspire and articulate national ideals and deeds — but Mr. Obama shouldn’t expect instant results. Lincoln’s first inaugural was a masterpiece of conciliation, but it did little to soothe antagonistic passions in the South or keep the Confederacy from seceding. The importance of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, another masterpiece, was almost wholly overlooked by much of the country. A mere 272 words, it was so short that only one fuzzy photograph of the occasion exists. And Lincoln’s second inaugural, arguably the finest speech given in American history, was treated with contempt by most Southerners. In each case, only with the flow of time do we see how important these speeches are to the overall narrative of the American story. And only in retrospect did they more fully illuminate our path and stitch up our wounds.
Just as important as the elements of governing, Mr. Obama can also learn from Lincoln about the personal side of being president. If Lincoln was marked by one trait, it was humility — and the fact that he was always himself. Resisting temptations to fit in with established Washington, Lincoln liked to say, “I presume you all know who I am, I am humble Abraham Lincoln.” His self-derogation was real, and so was his simplicity: He referred to himself as “A,” greeted visitors with “Howdy,” and stuffed notes in his pockets and stuck bills in his drawers. Lincoln also knew the importance of diversions to help him weather the strains of war, frequently going to plays and comedies — he often liked to say that he needed a “little laugh.”
And finally, Lincoln knew that as president of the United States, he was the steward of the precious fabric of American democracy, and equally importantly that he was just one link, and a temporary one at that, in the chain of presidents elected to watch over it. As Carl Sandburg once remarked, there were 31 rooms in the White House, and Lincoln was not at home in any of them. He knew it was never really his house.
Mr. Obama, as improbable and eloquent a president as Lincoln, will almost surely come to feel the same.
(Mr. Winik, a presidential historian, is the author, most recently, of “The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World”)
By James Butty | VOA
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – A senior Ethiopian {www:Woyanne} regime official says his government has a responsibility to maintain law and order and would not be swayed by outside criticism. The official, Bereket Simon, an advisor to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, was responding to a letter from four influential U.S. senators to the Ethiopian prime minister dictator.
In their letter, the four senators, including Russell Feingold, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa, warned that U.S.-Ethiopian relations could become more difficult because of the Ethiopian government’s actions against its opposition.
The senators said they were concerned about the re-arrest of opposition leader Birtukan Midekssa and the passage of a law restricting civil society groups.
Bereket Simon, advisor to the Ethiopian prime minister dictator told VOA the U.S. senators’ criticism and accusations are unwarranted.
“If anyone is breaking the law, it’s their problem and not our problem. Ethiopian government believes government has a mandate and an obligation to ensure the rule of law in {www:Ethiopia}. So it’s an unwarranted accusation and criticism,” he said.
The senators said in their letter that they were concerned about the re-arrest of opposition leader Birtukan Midekssa. Simon said the opposition leader broke the rules of her conditional pardon.
“First these opposition leaders had been tried and sentenced, and they asked for conditional pardon. Government granted them a conditional pardon which literally means if this person once again transgresses the law of the land, it would be a breach of the pardon, and that’s what she did. We don’t accept double standard here. We believe citizens who don’t have the backing of (U.S.) senators are equal to those who don’t have the backing of senators wherever. She has made mistakes and she has to account for it. Why should we be criticized by the senators?” Simon said.
The letter, dated January 16th, was signed by Senator Russell Feingold, chair of the Senate’s subcommittee on African Affairs. Other signatories are Senator Patrick Leahy, Richard Durbin, and Johnny Isakson.
The senators criticized Ethiopia’s recent law restricting civil society groups. Simon said foreigners do not have the same political rights as Ethiopian citizens to participate in Ethiopian affairs.
“The law differentiates between citizens and foreign-based NGO. Citizens have every right to participate in Ethiopian politics. In fact it is mandated by Ethiopian Constitution. So government cannot put a limit. On the other hand, those foreign-based NGOs who are here because of the privilege that is given to them by the government do not have the political rights to participate in Ethiopian affairs,” Simon said.
He said Ethiopia is not worried about the U.S. Senators’ criticism of the Meles Zenawi government, especially at a time when a new U.S. administration led by Barack Obama is about to take over the leadership of the U.S. government.
“No matter what the times might be, these Congressmen are telling us not to enact laws that are useful to Ethiopia. They are going to put pressure on us because we enacted our own laws. This Ethiopia; it’s a sovereign state. I don’t think any Congressman can tell us what to do,” Simon said.
To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist. – President Barack Obama, Jan. 20, 2009
Senator Barack Obama took the oath of office to become the 44th president of the United States of America at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on January 20, 2009. The following is full text of his inaugural address:
My fellow citizens:
I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.
So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.
That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land – a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.
Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America – they will be met.
On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted – for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things – some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.
For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.
Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.
This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions – that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act – not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.
Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions – who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them – that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works – whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account – to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day – because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.
Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control – and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart – not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.
Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.
We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort – even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West – know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment – a moment that will define a generation – it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.
For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.
Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends – hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism – these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
This is the source of our confidence – the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.
This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed – why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.
So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:
“Let it be told to the future world…that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive…that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it].“
America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
The former president of Ethiopia’s western region of Benishangul-Gumuz, Ato Yaregal Aysheshum, has changed his story about defecting and now he claims that he is in Canada for medical treatment. Click here to listen:
[podcast]http://www.ethiopianreview.info/audio/yaregal_ayshesum_jan2009b.mp3[/podcast]
On January 17, Ethiopian Review had reported that Ato Yaregal defected and has joined the opposition camp. The same day the story was published, an internet discussion forum that is run by the Woyanne propaganda chief Bereket Simon, brought Yaregal for interview from where he was hiding. Apparently, he still keeps with him a mobile phone that the Woyanne regime assigns to all its puppet regional officials to keep tabs on them.
In the interview with the Woyanne internet forum, Yaregal denied that he has defected and that he has received permission from Meles Zenawi to get medical treatment abroad.
First of all, this fool further exposed himself what kind of puppet he is by saying that he asks permission from Meles Zenawi to get medical treatment abroad, although he was president of a bantustanized region. Imagine the governor of Texas or California asking permission from the U.S. president to to travel abroad.
Secondly, why did he have to travel through Uganda, stay there for several days, fill out political asylum forms with the local UNHCR office, before traveling to Canada?
The truth of the matter is that when Meles sacked him in November 2008 from his position as president of Beninshangul-Gumuz and appointed him to some commission, Yaregal was angry and started contacting Ginbot 7 officials, telling them that he wants to defect and join the opposition. He wanted to use his membership in Ginbot 7 for his political asylum case. Ginbot 7 officials facilitated his trip to Uganda where they took him the office of the UNHCR’s director.
But once he arrived in Canada safely, he refused to speak out against the regime’s atrocities and corruption in the Benishangul region, which he had told about to the UNHCR office in Uganda. He told those who assisted him to come to Canada that that he has hotels and other properties in Ethiopia and that the Meles regime will confiscate them if he speaks up. He also expressed concern about the safety of his children who are still in Ethiopia.
It was at this point that Ethiopian Review decided to publish the story him. It seems that Yaregal wants to be in a safe country and live a life of luxury with the money he looted without taking accountability for his part in the Woyanne crimes in Ethiopia. At the same time, he is too greedy in that he wants to save his ill-gotten properties in Ethiopia.
Yaregal Ayshesum had played a major part in all the atrocities and massive corruption that were being committed by the Meles regime in Ethiopia for the past several years. The Government of Canada should thus deny his asylum request.
When Yaregal contacted Ginbot 7 officials, he told them that he could not continue to see the crimes being committed by his boss Meles Zenawi and that he wants out. Thinking that this man perhaps has a sliver of human conscience and that he may want to do the right thing from now on, they helped him escape to Uganda and then to Canada.
Even while in exile, Yaregal continues to prostitute himself for the Woyanne brutal dictatorship.
