| The oath ceremony of the 44th US President was held on January 20, 2009 in Washington. Obama took the Presidential oath and officially took charge as head of state for a four year term. According to various assessments, the inauguration ceremony of Obama was attended by 1 to 2 million persons. In his speech after the oath, Obama urged citizens to come together and face the world economic crisis, keep faith in the American spirit and ideas of equality, freedom and right to struggle for happiness and also stated about his readiness to undertake "remaking America". According to press reports, the total amount spent for Obama's inauguration, was a record 160 million dollars. Meanwhile, the very next day, on January 21, 2009, he had to take the presidential oath again because the chairman of the Supreme court, John Roberts, who dictated the oath to Obama, has mixed up the words.
On the first day on the post of President, Obama started meeting with economic advisers and heads of important ministries and departments. One of his first decisions, Obama ordered to stop the work of military courts in prison of the Guantanamo base and signed the ordinance about its closure on January 22. Under this ordinance, Guantanamo and all other foreign prisons of the USA were asked to close within one year. In the second ordinance, Obama banned the torture of prisoners in these prisons. In March 2009, former vice-president of the United States, Dick Cheney accused Obama's administration for reviewing anti-terrorist measures, inducted by Bush Jr, which has endangered the USA. In reply, Obama said that the situation for prisoners in Guantanamo has only led to igniting the anti-American sentiments in the world.
On January 27, 2009, Obama informed that he is ready to extend a hand to Iran if Islamic republican leaders "open theirs fist". In reply, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, has demanded apologies from the US for the atrocities done by the US against Iran for the last sixty years. Soon after Obama's induction, the US Senate started the approval of candidates, proposed by him into the cabinet of ministers. As a result, all the aspirants got the ministerial portfolios. At the same time, the induction of some candidates into ministerial posts, had a negative affect on the reputation of the new president: the reason was the scandal, associated with the non-payment of taxes by Timothy Geithner and Tom Daschle. And if the candidature of Geithner for the post of Minister of Finance of USA was approved by Senate, Daschle was compelled not to contest for the post of Minister of Health and social security. Obama had to admit that he made a mistake in choosing Daschle as a ministerial candidate and said that henceforth he will try not not repeat the mistakes in future.
Against growing unemployment and dipping exchange indexes and despite stiff resistance from republicans, the House of Representatives and the US Senate, in February 2009, adopted an anti-recessionary plan, which had foreseen the allocation of 787 billion dollars to support the American economy. According to the statements of Obama, this anti-recessionary plan should create 3.5 million new jobs in US, however, republicans believed that it will only aggravate the economy of the nation.
On February 27, 2009, Obama disclosed his strategy on the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. If, during the election campaign, he promised that the last batch of American troops will comeback before the 2010 summer, this time, Obama announced a new date - by the end of 2011. He observed that after the withdrawal of the major part of the military contingent (100 thousand persons) from Iraq, around 30000 to 50000 troops of support teams shall remain in Iraq: for one and half years also, they would participate in anti-terrorist operations.
In the beginning of March 2009, The New York Times newspaper published a report that, after taking over as President, Obama had sent a secret letter to Dmitry Medvedev, the president of Russia, in which he supposedly suggested to cut down on the deployment of National Missile Defence Systems in Eastern Europe. In exchange to this, Russia should convince Iran to stop its nuclear program. Subsequently, Medvedev and Obama confirmed the existence of such letters and it contained issues, related to deployment of Missile Defence Systems and Iran's nuclear program, however no suggestions were given on any "agreements". Thus, Obama stated that, he intends to improve his relations with Russia.
In March of the same year, Obama announced a new strategy regarding Afghanistan and Pakistan. To fight against terrorism in the region, in particular, the destruction of "Al Qaeda", the US president suggested to increase the US contingent by 4000 in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, journalists from the broadcasting company "Fox News" drew attention to the fact that, the Obama's strategy on Afghanistan has similarities to the strategy adopted by former US president George Bush. |
