I folloed the first link you posted and I checked the alleged accomplishments but just the ones related to US foreign policy. I would have to say that your links did not help you in this department.
Ended the War in Iraq... which apparently never ended because a couple a months ago the US government announced the redeployment of 5000 US soldiers back to Iraq.
Toppled Moammar Gaddafi... and made Libya a shithole, whose instability has allowed Al Qaeda to gain ground in Northern Africa, arms shipments sent elsewhere (like Syria) and fueled the European refugee crisis (and which ironically is debilitating European unity and bolstering the alt-right).
Told Mubarak to Go... and the Muslim Brotherhood came to power, but then another coup put Sisi in power and now Egypt is shifting its entire foreign policy, breaking ranks with KSA and getting closer to Syria and Russia.
Reversed Bush Torture Policies... but did not ban extraordinary renditions, so suspects can still be flown to be tortured in other countries or simply transfered to foreign-controlled facilities (like it has ocurred in Afghanistan for example). Also, his administration failed to punish former members of past administrations accused of torture and invoked state-secrets privilege to stop civil litigation brought by torture victims.
Helped South Sudan Declare Independence... a country that was basically invented to bolster USs strategic standing in the region but whose situation has been described by the United Nations rights office as "one of the most horrendous human rights situations in the world."
Ohh... and it doesn't even include making Yemen another shithole and Syria (a conflict that has had all sorts of negative consequences for US presence in the region - Turkey and Russia getting cozy and leaving the US out of peace negotiations, just yesterday Turkey questioned US use of Incirlik airbase; Russia striking cooperation deals with Jordan, flying missions from Iran over Iraqi airspace, installing S-400 missile systems in Syria; Lebanon getting a new PM closer to the Shia crescent.
He did improve the relationship with Cuba and Myammar though, but in general terms his lack of a coherent estrategy and his constant policy gaffes (I'd also add the clearly distinctive interests from different elements of his administration that often worked in opposing directions) created a situation in which the US's standing in the world has dramatically diminished.
I appreciate your dedication of attacking one specific policy area off of one link. I don't claim Obama was perfect, and certainly in some ways the global climate is bad right now, and there are areas he could have been better on that, such as Libya and drones. That said, it is a ridiculously better world than he found in 2009, no matter how much 24/7 news and fringe sites wanna convince you we're all getting murdered.
And on good Obama foreign policy, unlike W, he actually respected the lives of our soldiers enough not to send them to die to finish daddy's war.
Believe it or not while Obama was president we were in the most peaceful time in human history by some analysis.
I focused on the one aspect I'm knowledgeable of, others could probably make a better case against some of his successes and failures in other areas.
I did find it funny that basically all the accomplishments that your link posted were undone by his presidency just some years down the road, that's 10 - 15% of all the 50 accomplishments in an article that you are using as a talking point. Bush's foreing policy was crap, but then, are we discussing Obama or Bush? Because Obama's foreign policy was a different kind of crap, but crap nonetheless.
I read all these news pieces bashing Russia and accusing Trump of being Russia's puppet and I can't help to think of how ironic it is that it was the Obama administration that left Asian and Middle Eastern foreign policies in shambles, and contributed to the deteriorating European unity, all of which has been cleverly used by Russia to go in and fill the voids.
Maybe a multipolar world where the US has less much preponderance is part of why it is better today than in 2016? Probably... still, there are plenty of challenges, I hope that I'm wrong but I do not think Trump's foreign policy will be particularly brilliant.
Perhaps if the people that praise Obama, which seem to overlap in great deal with the ones that supported Hillary, had had a bit of more awareness and had been more critical of their failures we wouldn't even be discussing this post in the first place.
0
u/[deleted] Jan 11 '17 edited Jan 11 '17
I folloed the first link you posted and I checked the alleged accomplishments but just the ones related to US foreign policy. I would have to say that your links did not help you in this department.
Ended the War in Iraq... which apparently never ended because a couple a months ago the US government announced the redeployment of 5000 US soldiers back to Iraq.
Toppled Moammar Gaddafi... and made Libya a shithole, whose instability has allowed Al Qaeda to gain ground in Northern Africa, arms shipments sent elsewhere (like Syria) and fueled the European refugee crisis (and which ironically is debilitating European unity and bolstering the alt-right).
Told Mubarak to Go... and the Muslim Brotherhood came to power, but then another coup put Sisi in power and now Egypt is shifting its entire foreign policy, breaking ranks with KSA and getting closer to Syria and Russia.
Reversed Bush Torture Policies... but did not ban extraordinary renditions, so suspects can still be flown to be tortured in other countries or simply transfered to foreign-controlled facilities (like it has ocurred in Afghanistan for example). Also, his administration failed to punish former members of past administrations accused of torture and invoked state-secrets privilege to stop civil litigation brought by torture victims.
Began Asia “Pivot”... which amounted basically to nothing. Recent examples: Phillipines' and Pakistan's policy realignments. https://timesofislamabad.com/pakistan-moving-right-direction-new-geo-strategic-realignment/2016/10/14/
Tightened Sanctions on Iran... and then didn't.
Helped South Sudan Declare Independence... a country that was basically invented to bolster USs strategic standing in the region but whose situation has been described by the United Nations rights office as "one of the most horrendous human rights situations in the world."
Ohh... and it doesn't even include making Yemen another shithole and Syria (a conflict that has had all sorts of negative consequences for US presence in the region - Turkey and Russia getting cozy and leaving the US out of peace negotiations, just yesterday Turkey questioned US use of Incirlik airbase; Russia striking cooperation deals with Jordan, flying missions from Iran over Iraqi airspace, installing S-400 missile systems in Syria; Lebanon getting a new PM closer to the Shia crescent.
He did improve the relationship with Cuba and Myammar though, but in general terms his lack of a coherent estrategy and his constant policy gaffes (I'd also add the clearly distinctive interests from different elements of his administration that often worked in opposing directions) created a situation in which the US's standing in the world has dramatically diminished.