Failed foreign policy of Obama.

Experts in Washington talk increasingly of a “Failed foreign policy” of Obama.

“Obama wanted not less than to shift the arc of the history to more justice and a more peaceful and more stable world,”  wrote the renowned Washington Institute Brookings in their mid-term assessment of Obama’s foreign policy. He had hardly achieved results, instead given his opponents more often the impression, that in this area he is a weak, if not incompetent president. The attempt to appease hostile states such as Russia, Iran or China failed completely, but had alienated good old allies in Europe  and Israel. A high price for no results.

Already in the election campaign for the second term of office Obama’s consultants had problems to find foreign policy successes for the advertising posters. The killing of the Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and the end of the war in Iraq although seen as advantage, where both processes but had begun under his predecessor George W. Bush. Allegations of the Republicans, that the Commander in Chief of the most powerful army was too soft and timid, however, are hardly on target either. Instead, he has become a more absurd war-monger than the Conservatives.
Experts criticize the course of the US foreign policy in the first few months of Obama’s second term of office which soon started to decline rapidly. For Obama in foreign policy a lot more went wrong. His Chinese counterpart as he Xi Jinping rebuked Obama’s allegations of a cyber war at a bilateral summit in California on base of the secret NSA spy program. A low level external NSA-employees could undermine the credibility of the superpower world and alienated almost everybody in Europe .

Another example: since the military crushed in Egypt the Obama favoured Muslim Brotherhood of Mohammed Morsi, according to the White House critics the US eased to an important partner in this region. The State Department also show little interest: For more than a year was the post in Egypt was vacant. Minister of State, John Kerry traveled for months in the Middle East, in order to revive the peace talks. As Israelis and Palestinians then finally  met in Washington, Obama hesitated. In 2010 he had his fingers burned, as his initiated Middle East discussions quickly collapsed. The Obama administration in Egypt has placed itself between all the chairs. It is the scapegoat of the Muslim Brotherhood which has become defunct as well as for those secular forces, which have driven the Islamists from power. The signals out of Washington are irritating: Some called the disempowerment of the Muslim Brotherhood a coup d’Etat, but Minister of Foreign Affairs Kerry thinks the approach of the military may serve the restoration of democracy. The President, who believes apparently still in democratic socialization of Islamists radicals, meddles in between. The result: America’s credibility in the most populous Arab country will continue to decline. The failure is an indication for this American mediation efforts. The helpless cry of Senator McCain with a view on the division of Egypt “I didn’t know that it is so bad” speaks for itself.

Also for Syria, where it is estimated that more than 100 000 people  were killed during the civil war, Obama has had no clear strategy either. As political scientist Walter Russell Mead call it a complete “melt-down” of the the American middle east politic and super power position of the United States at risk. In view of the war in Syria the Obama administration clueless as never before. Bad, but yes even embarrassing is an admission that the Syrian dictator Assad, whose regime has been strongly supported by Russia, Iran and the Shi’ite Hizbullah , will not disappear soon – that Assad, Obama scheduled to go a few months ago as a condition for a political solution. Russia does not comply at all with American and ignored Obama’s Berlin initiative. The hawks in the US-congress demand a strong action against the regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad, but Obama insists on its strategy,” to steer from the rear seat”.  “Leading from behind” he cited 2010 as one of his  National Security Strategy pillars: “We must recognize that no nation – no matter how powerful it is – the global challenges can overcome alone”, says the paper. Bashar al-Assad is still in power. Putin outmaneuvered him not only on the Syria topic, but also on the Snowden asylum spin. Obama’s response was throwing a fit.

Unfortunately the world had no other superpower than this and terrorists will not stop their suicide attacks, only because the United States withdrew from Afghanistan and reduced drone strikes. Nor will they hesitate if Obama supplies them with weapons to use them against Western targets. “The US government wanted to make us think that we can deter our enemies from their interests with a high goal as bait,” said the Conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin. “This is nonsense and leads us into diplomatic dead ends. Our opponents will not help us.”