New Leaders, Old Conflicts: Highlights of 2006

By Igor Bakharev

2005 was defined by a few large and mostly selfcontained events, most notably Hurricane Katrina, the London bombings and the devastating Asian tsunami. By comparison, 2006 was explosive, eventful and a year of bold and unmitigated action.

Leadership change was a common theme within the G8 countries, as nationalist right-winger Shinzo Abe replaced Richard Gere twin Junichiro Kouizumi as Japanese PM, Christian Democrat Angela Merkel defeated Gerhard Schroeder to become Germany’s chancellor, and Romano Prodi became Italian Prime minister over media billionaire and incumbent Silvio Berlusconi. Meanwhile, the most socially awkward of the industrialized nations, Russia, hosted the annual G8 summit in St. Petersburg. With controversies such as poisoned spies, dead journalists and greedy natural gas policies surrounding the event Russia has re-asserted itself as a not so sleeping giant.

The shift toward socialism by Latin American countries continued but was by no means the trend, as Nicaragua returned to its Sandinista roots with the election of Bush 41 enemy Jose Ortega and the re-election of despotic loudmouth Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. At the same time, Mexican socialist Lopez Obrador lost the presidential election by a suspicious .58% to Felipe Calderon, while the socialist future of Cuba is in doubt after seriously ill leader Fidel Castro ceded power to possible reformer brother Raul.

The tinderbox that is the Middle East somehow became even more complicated as radical Islamist group Hamas replaced Fatah as Palestine’s ruling party, attracting sanctions and scorn from western governments. Continuing the theme of leadership change, Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke in April, leaving his deputy Ehud Olmert in charge. Within months, Olmert’s ability was tested as radical Islamic Hezbollah, backed by a rocket barrage (and by Syria/Iran), launched a cross-border raid and prompted a IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) response. The approximately month long conflict ended in a stalemate, cost 900 lives(mostly civilians), destroyed the IDF’s veneer of invincibility and propelled Hezbollah’s leader Nasrallah to mega-star status in the Islamic world. Elsewhere, Iran and its president Mahmoud Ahmandinejad continued its nuclear program and its vitriolic attacks against Israel, unfazed by western objections. And in an almost theatrical ending to 2006, the combined forces of the Ethopian and Somalian governments began their successful campaign to chase out the Islamic Courts Council, and thus return Somalia to a secular government.

On the domestic front we saw George Bush’s approval rating hover in low 30’s and his administration become mired in what seemed to be an endless stream of scandal and controversy. Social security reform fell flat, the Valerie Plame scandal tainted key members of the administration for outing a spy, and the row over the torture of enemy combatants made for a nightmarish political year. Meanwhile, the war in Iraq saw one notable success among continuing failure, the killing of Al-Qaeda chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. 2006 was especially disheartnening as the US military arrived at two grim milestones, 3,000 war dead and combat operations that have lasted longer than America’s campaigns in WWII.

Afghanistan continued to be a mess with its steadily rising Taliban-led insurgency. Meanwhile, the US failed in its efforts to restrict North Korea from joining the atomic bomb club, when the NKDR tested a half-kiloton bomb in early October.

This all culminated in a dramatic vote of no confidence by voters, who, spurred on by congressional corruption and debauchery (Mark Foley) ousted the Republicans and ended their twelve year control of Congress. A day later, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was sacked (finally!) in favor of former CIA chief Robert Gates.

Economic performance was mixed. Although the gap between the richest and the poorest kept growing and oil prices gave us per-gallon rates not seen since the seventies, the Dow Jones hit record highs and the housing bubble remained intact.