Countdown for Barack Obama

The world has got to grit its teeth for a while longer until Barack Obama’s presidential mandate comes to an end. But it won’t be easy to hang on because the United States’ worst president in recent history has got no intention of changing the record, at least in foreign affairs. The crises that have opened up in these last few years bear his signature, starting with the madness of promoting the “Arab Spring” protests. Judgment should be passed on the guilty culprit of the radical change in the philosophy behind alliances which were traditionally pursued by the American giant.

The fact that he is trying to conclude the Iranian nuclear agreement is a good thing. However, the desire for a solution cannot be satisfied at Israel’s expense. There is a feeling that Obama has been ready to turn his back on the United States’ historical partner in the Middle East for a while, forcing it to undergo the creation of the Palestine state in the absence of suitable security safeguards. Obama has not hidden his strong personal hostility to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This is why he didn’t do anything to attenuate his disappointment caused by “Bibi’s” election win last week.

The White House would have preferred to have more compliant partners in Jerusalem compared with the tough determination with which the Likud leader defends his country’s interests. Obama pretends to not understand but the pacification of the southern region no longer has anything to do with the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is certainly desirable that the two populations find the route to peaceful coexistence but, at the moment, the threats from the West have got little to do with the problem of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. With Libya in a mess, Syria in chaos and Iraq split into two, the focus of American foreign politics should be aimed at maintaining the efforts to stabilize the balance between countries in the area without disavowing its strategic alliance with Israel.

The solution to the Yemeni crisis which, after the escape of Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, sees Iranian militia prevailing in the considerable silence of American authorities, could determine the reaction of Saudi Arabia and the multitude of monarchs in the region, opening a much larger and more dangerous possibility for crisis between the Sunnis and the Shiites. To keep Qatar happy, Obama has taken an opposing position to General al-Sisi’s rise to power in Egypt. In the past, the American president has not tried to hide his favorable view of the victory of Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood: the same one that was isolated and neutralized by the General al-Sisi.

Last year, if White House policy had been followed, the Western coalition would have had to take part in the elimination of the Syrian dictator Bashar Al- Assad, to facilitate the rise to power of the Jihad fighters who initiated the Al-Nusra Front and Al-Baghdadi’s Islamic State, with all the bloodshed, violence and devastation that the world has witnessed. In Eastern Europe it isn’t as if things have gone any better. The nearing of the Russian Federation to Western democracies has been abruptly brought to an end. The absurd campaign of supporting Ukrainian nationalism, in violation of the most basic rules of realpolitik, has risked, and continues to risk, seeing Europe swamped by a senseless head-on conflict with the Eurasian power.

Instead of throwing water onto the flames, Obama continues to fuel Baltic, Polish and Ukrainian fear, just to arm the continental front against the Russian Federation. At heart, Europe was a peaceful place to live. Not any more thanks to decisions imposed by the White House. It’s not surprising, then, if a fair amount of people are counting down the days till Mr. Obama’s farewell from the Oval Office.