The Biggest Fake of the Last 10 Years: US President Barack Obama

Do you remember the spectacular footage of U.S. president Barack Obama at Prague Castle in April 2009? Naive members of both the media and the public listened admiringly to his speech at Hradčany Square, and believed that the days of George W. Bush’s unpopular America were over. Yet since then, America has weakened and grown less reliable. Obama is the fake of the decade.

It is a problem for the world that the U.S. is no longer the world’s policeman. Yes, many people looked forward to this day, but as it turns out it doesn’t lead to a safer world, nor will it. Military conflicts, ethnic cleansing, genocide and disputes between states show no sign of dying down. Even under Obama, Washington talks about them, but is unable to solve them. Essentially, this is because the military doesn’t want to solve them (having been forced into this global pacifist naivety by the American public, which wishes to become less engaged abroad), and we are unaware of any alternative measures that might stop the madmen of the Islamic State. An era is already dawning which several generations of anti-American cheerleaders have longed for — a world which has no one to put dictators, murderous Islamists and autocrats (à la Putin) in their place.

Recall, for instance, Barack Obama’s words in Prague in 2009: “The U.S. and Europe must approach Muslims as friends, neighbors and partners in the fight against injustice, intolerance and violence.”* A few days ago these “friends and neighbors” in Syria beheaded American journalist James Foley. Remember that last year, Obama persuaded Russian President Putin not to invade Syria.

And so the world has gradually “got rid of” American interventions, which had nevertheless been carried out by the world’s strongest democratic country with at least some good intentions. But the world hasn’t rid itself of other interventions, carried out by fanatics of all stripes. Obama may criticize this state of affairs in his attractive, deep and engaging voice (now and then even going so far as to threaten somebody privately), but the bad guys longing for war and confrontation aren’t afraid of him. The fear of punishment evaporated when Obama became U.S. president.

This is what the world wants, and so it is now foolish to ask who will solve the conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, the Central African Republic , Nigeria, Yemen, Mali and God knows where else.

Even so, Obama’s fakery hasn’t only been recognized abroad. Even at home his people haven’t believed in him as a strong leader, nor felt that he is able to solve fundamental problems, nor that they have to follow him. Many Americans naively felt that with the election of Barack Obama, there came to power somebody who was “one of them.” He overrode the opinions of the average Democrat supporter and a wide range of social and ethnic lobbies. And so this superpower (for how much longer?) is governed by an average and ineffectual president.

Meanwhile, the promise of “a better and safer world” vanishes into thin air.

*Editor’s Note: This quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified.