RNA - It's a description that applies to former US president Barack Obama and his foreign policy legacy. The reluctant war-maker and Noble Peace Prize winner, who has joked he still doesn't know why he won it, will be remembered as one of the most ruthless and criminal US presidents in history. His record of waging war and bombing campaign has affected millions, from Iraq and Syria to Yemen, Libya, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
It’s a lie when new President Donald J. Trump claims Obama underfunded the military and was less than aggressive in his use of military power. These claims are only designed to justify even more extravagant military spending and more aggressive threats and uses of force by his new administration.
It is post-truth that Obama increased US military spending well beyond the post-World War II record set by President George W. Bush. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, he spent an average of $653.6 billion per year, outstripping Bush by an average of $18.7 billion per year. It involved a massive expansion of US special operations forces, now deployed to 138 countries, compared with only 60 when Obama took office.
Nor is that all. War-Party Washington expanded the drone war and recruited and trained terror proxy forces on Obama’s watch to do the actual fighting and dying, from the ISIL death squads in Iraq to Al-Qaeda-linked “moderates" in Syria supporting regime-change project.
In the end, Obama’s murderous proxy wars failed. But they also spiraled further out of control, with devastating consequences not just for local populations across the Muslim world, but ultimately, more blowback for the West. It’s the biggest blot on the Obama record that will live after him.
In the interim, Washington’s self-serving allies like Saudi Arabia, Israel, Qatar, and others exploited and redirected the military aggression to fuel sectarian violence against Iran, Syria, Yemen and Libya, as well as different ethnic groups, minorities and political movements. It’s the other black mark on Obama’s legacy that cannot be ignored. It has stained his foreign policy legacy forever.
Obama will be remembered for waging endless wars of aggression throughout his tenure, a war criminal remaining unaccountable for his high crimes. He left office on Friday, January 20, after bombing seven countries for eight years, with multiple conflicts still raging, including nearly six years of terror-war on Syria, a nation threatening no one.
It’s a wake-up call for the Muslim world. America’s wars cannot be seen simply in a traditional frame. They devolve into disdain, whether disdain toward Middle Eastern allies or disdain toward terror proxy forces.
On the big picture, the Middle East’s difficulties owe less to its own shortcomings than to the colonial policies of the United States, its self-serving allies, and the implacable hostility of the Zionist regime of Israel and its racist view. The danger is some regional states might still try and call on the 45th president of the United States to tap their deepest aspirations for “democracy and hope” all over again - one that Obama failed to deliver through inconclusive and paralyzing regime-change projects.
Lest they forget, he came to office promising to break down the barriers of Islamophobia, seeking compromise on the Muslim world. He never made that deal with Muslims. In this, he was with the Christian-Zionist establishment and the Military-Industrial Complex, never an outlier, out of place and out of time. It is a testament to his ruthless, criminal and messy legacy that cannot and should never be defended in the months and years to come. The arc of history is long, but it won't ever judge his foreign policy kindly.
847/940