Obama Masters Foreign Policy

The recent successful end of the rebellion in Libya marks another milestone in President Barack Obama's conduct of foreign policy.  This latest in a remarkable string of successes is all the more striking given the president's lack of international or defense credentials when he ran for office.  It says a lot about his basic outlook, validating a measured and principled approach to the world in contrast to the wasteful, unprincipled and ultimately counterproductive methodology of his predecessor in office. While Obama has certainly shown no aversion to the use of force when he considers it necessary, he has consistently shown an astute capacity to tailor the scale of the action to the need at hand.

On his third day in office, Obama fulfilled campaign promises by signing executive orders ending torture and closing secret CIA prisons.  These actions were met with relief around the world. Juxtaposed with this was his order three months later to kill Somali pirates holding American merchant sea captain Richard Phillips hostage.  The lesson seemed to be that the U.S. could and would stand firm against criminal thuggery and extortion while upholding its traditional principles--that it was not an either/or proposition as the Bush-Cheney administration had contended.  Why not both?

President Obama followed this up with the first visionary appeal by an American president to the people of the Middle East on their own soil with his landmark Cairo Speech of June 4, 2009.  In it he spoke out against the allure of violence by stating, "So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, and who promote conflict rather than cooperation that can help all of our people achieve justice and prosperity."  And in a passage that now sounds prophetic, he continued,

"But I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose.  Those are not just American ideas, they are human rights, and that is why we will support them everywhere.  Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away...and we will welcome all elected, peaceful governments--provided they govern with respect for their people."

That these words were delivered in the Egypt of the corrupt and oppressive dictator Hosni Mubarak is not inconsequential.  To what extent these appeals contributed to later events may be revealed in  historical studies to come, but it cannot be denied that the American outreach Obama initiated in his early months culminated in the October 9, 2009 announcement that the new president had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.  In the words of the Nobel Committee, "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy, and cooperation between peoples...Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics."

This climate was revealed in the Arab Spring of 2011, when the citizens of Tunisia and Egypt successfully agitated for freedom and democracy and ousted their authoritarian rulers.  Uprisings also took place in Libya, Syria and Bahrain.  Obama's adroit handling of the situation in Libya, focused on air support and enlisting the contributions of allies, ultimately resulted in the overthrow of the odious regime of Moammar Ghaddafi without a single American casualty at a cost of about $1.5 billion: a clear delineation from how the Bush Administration went about regime change in Iraq.  There, U.S. boots on the ground resulted in American losses of 4,481 dead and 32,195 wounded at a financial price tag of $757.8 billion in direct costs and possibly $1.9 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office, including indirect costs.

Speaking of the inherited wars, Obama personally made the bold decision that killed Osama bin Laden in May despite potential diplomatic fallout with Pakistan, and also recently eliminated English-language Al-Qaeda recruiter Anwar al Awlaki in Yemen.  His stepped-up use of drone attacks has decimated the terror group's leadership in Pakistan.  Meanwhile, all American forces are scheduled to be out of Iraq by the end of this year and Afghanistan by 2014. The Obama scalpel has proven to be a far more effective and economical strategy than the Bush-Cheney bludgeon.  While they excelled at braggadocio and posturing, Obama quietly shows good judgment and gets results.  The contrast could not be more refreshing nor more helpful to America's image and interests. 

Good Friends and Big Trees

It's been awhile since I posted.  I've been extremely busy with papers to grade and a visit from my good friends Tom and Jeff.  I also want to apologize to Ms. Cain, who posted a comment on my last blog entry on exercise.  I was trying to approve and publish the comment, but seem instead to have deleted it!  I always look forward to comments on my musings, so if any of you dear readers want to chime in please feel welcome.  I'll try not to delete the next one!

My topic today is friendship, occasioned by the wonderful visit of my friends Tom and Jeff.  These guys have been special friends since our days at Claremont McKenna College, which we all attended from 1972 to 1976.  It is humbling to think our acquaintance now goes back nearly 39 years.  Tom and I were room mates for several semesters.  Jeff is in charge of rural development loans for the US Department of Agriculture in Oregon.  Tom is a developmental economics professor at Michigan State University.  He spends a lot of time in Asia working on the economics of food distribution.  I teach history at College of the Sequoias.  All of us wanted to go into fields where we felt we could contribute to society and help people.   

My friends came for a three-day weekend, flying in to the San Francisco Bay Area Friday morning and arriving here about noon.  They left early before dawn on Monday.  We had plenty of activities, most of it centered around nearby Sequoia National Park.  But of course the best thing about it was the camaraderie--the catching up, sharing ideas, views and advice.  It's uncanny how with very good friends it's easy to pick right up where you left off, filling the same roles in a group.  Tom even mentioned right away how it seems people's basic personality is formed early and persists throughout life.  Indeed it seems so.

The picture above shows the three of us taking a break on our hike along the Sugar Pine Trail at Sequoia.  That's me on the left, Jeff in the middle and Tom on the right.  We went about five hours at 6500 feet, a good workout.  I was able to go to the top of Moro Rock and get a gorgeous view of the high Sierras from there, as you can see from this closeup of Jeff.  Yes, the first snowfall of the year had taken place a couple of days before.  Our first quick visit up Friday afternoon had been shrouded in fog and cloud, but by the time we

 took this shot on Sunday it was clear and sunny.  The temperature was a comfortable (for hiking) 55 degrees.  At one point on the trail deep  in the woods we found ourselves about 20 yards from a bear!  Fortunately the critter was in a copse of bushes busily gnawing on something and paid us no mind. 

Saturday we visited Crystal Cave in the park, another first for me.  Tom had never been in a cave.  The hour-long tour was over almost before we knew it--a sure sign of time well spent.  The cave was noteworthy for its still-growing formations and its clear running water inside.  The guide was a fascinating young man.  He struck up a conversation with us after the tour about how to approach finding a college that fits his interests and goals.

We didn't spend a lot of time reminiscing about bygone days.  All of us, in our late fifties, are still focused on the present and future.  There was talk about handling job pressures and personal relations, and Jeff now has a grandchild to dote on.  Tom is on the verge of a major career advancement and was also encouraging me to branch out.  It felt so comfortable to be able to share intimacies so freely; such friends are one of the great blessings of life.

If you've never seen a giant sequoia, they are truly awesome. Here is a shot at the entrance to Circle  

Meadow in the Giant Forest Area of Sequoia.  One sign compared the size of these trees to a human, saying they are about the same relative size to us as we are to an ant.  The biggest are up to 275 feet tall and comprise 40,000 cubic feet of lumber, the largest living things ever on planet earth.  The Coast Redwoods along California's northwest shore are taller but much thinner and have less volume.  These giants can live up to 3,000 years!  

It was a great weekend.  Fresh air, the joys of good friends, stimulating conversation and humor, taking in the wonders of nature, and treating ourselves to Reimers ice cream on the way down after a good long walk reduced the relationship of life and happiness down to its essentials.  These are the true things of life to savor.

   

Keeping Healthy: Exercise

In my last post I described some of the nutrition steps I've been taking.  Now it's time to take a look at the exercise routine I've been following.  The main goals are to improve cardiovascular function and build tone and strength.  A side benefit is calorie consumption to take some of the pressure off diet in the business of weight control.

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are cardio days.  Several years ago I bought a treadmill and customarily do my work on it.  I buy a service contract which gives it a yearly tuneup and free repair when it needs it.  I've found when you use a home treadmill as much as I do this winds up paying for itself.  When the treadmill is down for service I've used the odometer in my car to plot out a route around the neighborhood which I run instead.  I don't do that all the time because I feel the pavement is harder on my knees than the treadmill.  But by all means do whatever you find most enjoyable as long as you're exercising! 

I like to do my workout early in the morning.  When the alarm goes off I get out of bed and get right to it.  I drink about six ounces of water and put on my running shoes.  I moisten a washcloth and daub my face and neck with it during the run for comfort and to keep the sweat out of my eyes.  I have a TV set up so I can watch the morning news or whatever is interesting while I do my workout.  The routine is a six-minute warm up, a three-mile run and then a six-minute cool down.  I start out walking for three minutes at three miles per hour.  Then I move the speed up to 3.5 and walk for another three minutes.  After that I kick it up to five mph and run for thirty-six minutes.  It's a twelve-minute-mile pace and I cover three miles.  To make it interesting and begin working in some interval training, at the 36-minute mark (that's 30 minutes into the run, after the six-minute warm up walk) I increase the speed to six mph for one minute so I'm really running.  I go back to five mph until I hit the 40-minute mark and run at 6.5 mph for another minute.  That feels almost like a sprint.  The purpose of interval training is to prompt the body to continue to improve, which it naturally does when faced with varied challenges of different intensities.  At the 42-minute mark I go back down to a brisk walk at 3.5 mph for three minutes, then finish at a comfortable walking pace of 3 mph for the last three minutes. 

The entire routine takes 48 minutes.  I allow close to an hour, considering the call of nature, donning shoes, getting a drink of water and a little cool down afterward.  I shave after the run and then like to spend a few minutes outside to cool off before I get in the shower.  Otherwise I'll still be perspiring when I get out of the shower and try to dry off!  The treadmill readout says this routine burns about 540 calories.  I worked up to the three miles incrementally, starting at a half mile.  

Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays are strength training days.  I get up at the same time and run through my calisthenics and weights for a pattern that takes a little less than half an hour.  Then I get on the treadmill or bicycle for another half hour.  I start on my back with legs straight and clench the quadriceps ten times for a five-count.  I do ten more while raising the legs and ten more while raising the legs over a pillow.  While still on the floor I do ten kegel exercises, which is clenching the sphincter muscles for bladder control.  That's important for me as someone who's had a prostatectomy.  I get up and do twelve five-count toe stands.  After that I sit on the side of the bed and try to push my knees together ten times with my fists holding the legs apart.  Then I try to move the knees apart with my hands trying to press them together.  Back on the floor, I do 50 five-count abdominal crunches followed by twenty half sit ups where I alternate driving the left elbow toward the right knee and the right elbow toward the left knee.  Next come the push ups.  I do at least 50; after that I go until I can't do any more.  Today I did 56.  My tops so far is 61.  When I started my workouts I could not do one push up!  While doing the push ups I stop going down when my elbows are bent 90 degrees.  Going farther risks injury.  Now it's time for the weights.

For a couple of years I used one ten-pound dumbbell.  I recently bought an adjustable pair at a sporting goods store.  By working both arms at the same time I'm saving time.  I started with 11 pounds in each arm and just this week went up to 13.5 pounds each.  The next increment will be 16.5 pounds apiece.  When I went from 11 pounds to 13.5 I cut the reps by 20%, the approximate amount of the weight gain.  I'll stay at this level until it gets easy.  Then I'll add the weight and work on increasing the reps as strength builds.  At present, with the 13.5 pounds I start by sitting in a chair and lay my forearms on the chair's arms.  I do 80 wrist curls palms up and 80 more palms down.  I stand up and do 25 like the military press, extending both arms all the way up.  Then I lay on my back on the floor and do 25 like a bench press, extending both arms up from the chest.  Then I stand up and do 40 biceps curls.  That concludes the calisthenics and weights, at least until I get in the car to drive to work.  I have a hand gripper there.  I hold it down for a 100-count with each hand, then do 100 squeezes with each hand.  I do them with the index finger off the grip.

But before that, on Tuesdays and Thursdays I do half an hour of treadmill walking.  To warm up I go 3 mph for two and a half minutes and 3.5 mph for another two and a half minutes.  Then I push the incline up to 6% and go for twenty minutes.  I warm down at the end by taking the incline back to zero and going another two and a half minutes at 3.5 mph and then at 3.0 mph.  The treadmill readout says this routine burns about 250 calories.

On Saturdays instead of walking the slope I bicycle, weather permitting.  I ride 6.5 miles through town and get done in thirty minutes.   To get done in 30 minutes or less I'm pedaling hard all the way; maybe not all-out, but hard.  Early in the morning on Saturday traffic is light.  When I began it took me 45 minutes.  I wear a helmet and use front and rear lights before sunrise, but the bike is nothing fancy.  It's a girl's bike one of my daughters used to ride: one-speed (no gears) and with the pedal brakes instead of hand brakes.  I don't have the neon bike-racing togs either.  Serious cyclists with fancy bikes I encounter on the road go past me with little effort, but that's OK.  I'm not out to set the land speed record or go fast at minimal effort.  I'm out to work hard and get my heart rate up for half an hour.  I don't work out on Sunday.  I figure the body needs some recuperation time.    

I'm not really finding it difficult to maintain my regimen or to force myself to do the work.  I just set the alarm and get going when it rings.  In truth, I rarely get awakened by the alarm anymore.  My internal clock knows when it's time and I'm usually up and turn off the alarm off before it rings.  I have had to curtail my previous night owl tendencies.  I'm lights out now before 10:00 and up at 5:00 and enjoying it.  Habit and routine are powerful.  So is the feeling of strength and stamina these workouts engender.  I understand they release plenty of good hormones into the blood that help give a positive mental outlook, too.  My doctor tells me the blood samples from my physicals since instituting this program have been textbook perfect.  These six hours of exertion are also burning at least 3,000 calories and building muscle that burns more even when I'm at rest.  That allows me to eat more when I want without packing on the pounds.  If you're interested in getting started with your own routine, I'd advise doing things you enjoy, and remember to build into it.  If you are looking for some exercises to get started with, here's a link to an article by noted Visalia trainer Justin Levine.  Get active!