Let’s cut to the chase. Wherever the long arm of the Obama administration has reached there is turbulence or conflict. The idea that the US is a global force for good lingers only in the imaginations of the duped. Obama believed in reconciliation, not war, or so he said early in his presidency. But his silky tongue can no longer mask the facts.
Barack Obama’s foreign policy is opaque, inconsistent and rife with double-standards. His errors are compounded by his lemming-like European partners. Amazingly, his approval rating at home remains a respectable 44 per cent. As a former British prime minister once said: “Public opinion is a compound of folly, weakness, prejudice, wrong feeling, right feeling, obstinacy — and newspaper paragraphs.” The western media neglects to hold Obama’s feet to the fire on his spectacular foreign policy failures. Whether he is a fool or a knave is immaterial; he is on a destructive course and he is not finished yet.
Bravo to the US/Nato intervention in Libya which unshackled this oil-rich nation from its lunatic dictator! But wait! Libya does not have a functioning government, is over-run with armed militias — and its oil-production has dived to a mere 230,000 bpd as opposed to 1.6 million barrels pre-revolution. His oiling of Sudan’s slicing in two is no badge of honour as long as warring sides cover the fledging South Sudan, with blood while revenues dwindle from its economic lifeblood, oil.
There is no denying that Obama’s posturing over his trampled-upon “red lines” brought the Middle East an inch away from full-scale conflict last summer with the potential to ignite the Third World War. His backing away bolstered the Bashar Al Assad regime and undermined US credibility. He virtually dumped the Syrian opposition. The destruction of the regime’s chemical weapons and the Geneva conferences were nothing more than fig leaves to disguise his utter ineptitude.
America’s commander-in-chief has engendered deep mistrust of his country throughout the region, greatly compounded by his flirtation with Iran’s ayatollahs in spite of the fact that they are the puppet masters of Hezbollah as well as the Shiite Al Houthi rebels in Yemen, who directly threaten Saudi sovereignty. Tehran further provides material support to a Shiite insurgency in Bahrain.
Obama’s cuddling of the Muslim Brotherhood and his punishment of Egypt for heeding a popular call to unseat its democratically-elected president has not only alienated Saudi Arabia and various Gulf states but has also thrust the Egyptian military into Moscow’s eager arms with Riyadh’s blessing. Obama’s scheduled meeting with King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz to patch up differences is just weeks away. He will need more than his usual charm offensive.
Staying on the topic of democratically-elected presidents, Obama had no qualms about throwing his weight behind Ukraine’s parliamentary coup that ousted president Viktor Yanukovych, who was immediately branded a killer even before an investigator had taken out his pen. The White House has given no credence to Russia’s legitimate concerns, which include maintaining its navy’s warm-water port in Crimea, its rejection of Nato’s nukes being parked near its borders and the security of ethnic Russians.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has a point when he says Crimea means more to Russia than the Falklands mean to Britain. Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher went to war for islands close to Argentina with Washington’s diplomatic support. So it is hardly strange that Moscow has sworn to uphold the results of the Crimean referendum, in which 96.7 per cent of voters supported joining Russia. Moreover, Scotland is gearing up for a referendum on its independence from Britain to be held in September. The David Cameron government balks at the idea, but will respect the people’s will. So why should the people of Crimea be treated differently?
Obama lectures Russian President Vladimir Putin on the necessity of de-escalating the crisis even as he spews threat after threat. Putin could decide ‘in for a penny in for a pound’ and roll his tanks into eastern Ukraine, which could set the hands of the Doomsday Clock even closer to midnight.
In the meantime, Obama is stirring-up violence in Venezuela targeting Nicolas Maduro, the ideological son of the late president Hugo Chavez. US agencies have been funding the opposition for years. US Secretary of State John Kerry has twisted government efforts to maintain law and order as “a terror campaign against its own citizens”. Maduro has warned America that its interventionism risks the US being isolated from Latin America and the Caribbean. Countries like Ecuador and Bolivia fear they will be next.
In just a few short years, Obama ‘the peacemaker’ has chilled US relations with Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Russia as well as Venezuela and other South American countries. Spying by the National Security Agency has evoked loud protests from the European Union, galvanising German Chancellor Angela Merkel to announce plans for a spy-proof European communications network. Even America’s once sacrosanct relationship with Israel has been sorely tested.
Were Obama to respond to a “President Wanted” classified ad, clutching his dismal resume, what is the betting that he will be shown the door with the words ‘Don’t call us, we’ll call you’? If the American people will not hold him to account, history surely will.
Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She can be contacted at lheard@gulfnews.com