On January 20 (US local time), the decorated Washington drew attention from the world. By spending 50 million US dollars the grand ceremony for the US president inauguration is scheduled to hold: it will show the world its power and luxury with dances followed by banquets and fireworks by salute firing. However after waking up from the celebrations what US President George W. Bush will feel might not be in a buoyant mood �C many challenges and knotty questions are waiting for him to solve.

Firstly the Iraqi war and the subsequent US presidential election made US society fall into a big rift. There has been never such a serious fissure between the supporters of the two parties of Republican and Democrat like today. US President Bush faces the obligation on how to reunite the whole country. Although there is a favorable situation that Bush has the Republican governed the both chambers of the Senate and the House. But Bush's determination to push forward its welfare and tax reform plans has met with resistance from the masses at middle and low strata. There will be deepening risks for larger social rift.

And whether to reverse the Iraqi situation will become the biggest test for Bush's second term of office. Iraq seems to become the US "chicken ribs'' and the US troops in Iraq are in the situation like being easy to ride a tiger but difficult to get off. Since the start of the Iraqi war, more than 1,300 US soldiers have died in Iraq with military expenditure of nearly 100 billion US dollars. Now the United States is spending 1 billion US dollars on military in Iraq each week. If go on like this, Iraq will likely become another bleeding wound for US society. So recently Bush had to announce US will withdraw its troops from Iraq as quickly as possible, but with a prerequisite that US troops should complete their mission. Bush has placed hopes on the Iraqi election scheduled at the end of this month. However there are more raids with each passing day. And it is worried that the security situation there is getting worse as there are more terrorist activities and kidnappings; the Sunnite Muslims party announced recently to withdraw from the Iraqi election, which weakens the general effectiveness and lawfulness of the election greatly. If even the election is going on smoothly the terrorist activities will not disappear.

Another challenge facing Bush administration is how to bury the differences between US and Europe. For this, Bush will pay a visit to Europe next month. To settle the issue of Iraq, Bush is in urgent need of the support of "old Europe'' in the areas of troops and money. The one-and-half-a-year's practice of Iraqi war shows that it is unwise to rely only on unilateral strategy by flinging away the United Nations' support and adopting the policy of "divide and rule'' in Europe with reliance on the temporary "volunteers coalition''. Bush's reelection has brought him a chance that lets bygone be bygone and makes his friends again. But it will be a considerably longer process to eliminate the US-weariness among the European public.

It is another hard task for the Bush administration to restart the Middle East peace process. The Israeli Labor Party's entry into the cabinet and Palestinian Mahmoud leader Abbas winning election have brought a precious chance to the Middle East peace process. Now it will depend on if the both sides can govern its internal affairs and exercise effective restraint; also on if Bush can give up his unfair policy in Israeli-Palestinian relations, which also a test for his political boldness.

In addition, how to solve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsular and the Iranian nuclear issue are also two hard problems for the Bush Administration's foreign policy. Judging from the Bush's foreign squad some deem that Bush administration will continue to take the hard line in his foreign policy featuring unilateralism. On the other hand with lessons Bush has to make some adjustments in its foreign policy according to realities.

The new tenure marks a new start after all. Various countries have expected much of the new Bush tenure. Whether it is wishful thinking to realize these expectations depends on if Bush goes ahead with his unilateral road or is back to the multilateral road.

By People's Daily Online