The legacy of President Obama

US President Barack Obama has two-more days in the White House and on Saturday, the world will see a peaceful transfer of power in the world’s most powerful nation, the United States of America (USA) from Barack Obama to President-elect Donald Trump. Already CNN has come up with a series about the Obama Legacy, but what kind of legacy did Pres. Obama leave behind? Historically, he is the first Afro American President of the US, but as far as his domestic and foreign policies are concerned, in my book he allowed America to be weakened militarily. Obama was a failure!

Right now many Americans are angry with the Russians for “hacking their democracy,” although the CIA itself said that the hacking did not alter the results of the elections. But then we know too well that China, North Korea and many other countries that are friends or foe of the US did try to hack into the US Government. In short, Donald Trump is correct that the US must come up with a “hack-free” computer system if that animal exist at all. Even here in the Philippines our elections were hacked… but no one seems interested to find out why. I find this very strange!

Last March 16, 2014 when the Russian Federation annexed the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, what did Pres. Obama do? He put sanctions on Russia. It is for this reason why President-elect Donald Trump believes that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has become obsolete. I guess the same thing goes for the United Nations (UN), which could not solve the political problems of many countries. The tiny island of Cyprus is just one example and the biggest example is that peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians are done by European nations rather than the UN.

Pres. Obama’s policies in the Middle East fared even worse when he did not lift a finger to stop Russia from intervening in the civil war in Syria and in the end, the rebels that held Aleppo were forcibly removed and destroyed Syria’s Assad continues to rule with an iron fist with the backing of Russia and Iran. In short Syria is back to square one with Aleppo in ruins!

Of course the biggest debacle under the Obama Presidency happened in Benghazi. Libya where he lost US Ambassador Chris Stevens in an attack against the US Mission there. America never lost an Ambassador in a terror attack. I submit that under Pres. Obama, we have to credit him for the assassination of the world’s number one terrorist Osama Bin Laden. But his death did not stop world terrorism and instead we saw the rise of more deadly ISIS terrorists, which grew in strength and numbers under Obama’s watch!

As far as Pres. Obama’s “Asia Pivot” is concerned, US Intelligence only told the Philippines that the People’s Republic of China was constructing artificial islands for military use in the disputed South China Sea. What did the Obama Presidency do to stop China? Nothing, except to tell his pal, then President Benigno “PNoy” Aquino III that this was happening before our eyes. As what people say, both of them were caught “Natulog sa pancitan!”

Now in his last few days in the White House the US Defense Department has warned China not to use those facilities that they built. But then it is too late for anything to happen within the South China Sea or what we call the West Philippine Sea. We have to leave this issue to the Trump administration who is trying to coax China on their “One-China Policy” which the Chinese insists is “non-negotiable!” How this issue will be played out we will have to see how President Trump will deal with China in his Presidency.

Finally, one of the reasons why Philippine and US Relations have been estranged lately is due to the fact that US Pres. Barrack Obama chastised Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte regarding the Extra-Judicial Killings (EJK) happening in the Philippines to the point of even withdrawing US aid if we so not stop the killings. But then we are not alone when it comes to EJK.

From Donald Trump himself, as he was quoted in a Washington Post report said, “In Chicago, they’ve had thousands of shootings, thousands since January 1st. Thousands of shootings. And I’m saying, where is this? Is this a war-torn country? What are we doing? And we have to stop the violence. We have to bring back law and order. In a place like Chicago, where thousands of people have been killed, thousands over the last number of years, in fact, almost 4,000 have been killed since Barack Obama became president, over — almost 4,000 people in Chicago have been killed.” In the year 2016 along, 750 people have been murdered in Chicago, which is the hometown of Barrack Obama!

One Facebook report that I read thanked Pres. Obama for under his watch, he witnessed the destruction of one of the most enduring political parties of the United States of America… the Democratic Party where in the last Presidential elections, he campaigned vigorously for Hillary Clinton and lost not only the White House, but control by the Democrats of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Something that has not happened in the US for decades. This in my book is the legacy that Pres. Obama left for Americans!

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected] or [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.

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