Which Barack Obama will we see in 2013?

The foreign policy of President Barack Obama is supposed to be better than that of his predecessor George W. Bush, and that of his anticipated rival Mitt Romney, especially if he becomes free of the shackles that currently weigh down his work in a second term. Yet I am reading what may be cause for concern. I read that President Obama is enamored with a book by Robert Kagan, the American figure with Likudnik tendencies, entitled “The World America Made”, and that he has asked senior officials in the National Security Council to read an essay by Kagan that predated the book and which condenses the main ideas of the latter. It seems the American President believes that American leadership is back, with the coalitions it built, the blows it dealt to its enemies, and as a moral example for people. Well, the above is an opinion that may be a hit or a miss. But let us consider the facts, even if briefly. The United States alone used to account for a third of the world economy until the end of the last century. Now, it accounts for a quarter, and we would have barely reached the end of the decade when its economy will represent a fifth of the world economy, with China having overtaken the U.S. The enormous debt burden of the United States (15 trillion dollars that is likely to grow by 1.3 trillion each year, which represents the budget deficit) means that the U.S. administration, regardless of who is in the White House, cannot wage a war, let alone two at the same time. As regards the real and perceived enemies, the United States has in fact lost all its last wars, in Afghanistan, Iraq and the war on terror. Now, the U.S. is waging war on terrorists using drones, killing innocent civilians along with terrorists in almost every attack. So much so, in fact, that the American material I have gathered on this subject alone is sufficient for a book that condemns the U.S. administration of committing war crimes. The above is all confirmed facts, and I add to them that, since the Second World War, the successive administrations in America held alliances with dictatorial regimes against their peoples, and the Arab reader knows this more than anyone else. In all the wars that the U.S. fought, from the Far East to Central America, including our countries, not a single democratic regime was put in place. It follows then that the moral example set by the United States is a bad one. Here, it suffices for one to examine America’s alliance with Israel, i.e. the fascist occupation state, to completely dismiss any claims of morality relative to U.S. foreign policy. In the clearest possible terms, the United States cannot claim to be moral when it is allied with an immoral neo-Nazi state – because the Israel lobby had bribed the American legislators and put them in its pocket. Recently, President Obama gave the Medal of Freedom to President Shimon Peres – the Freedom to kill Palestinians and occupy their land, perhaps? I pause here to ask: Is Obama’s admiration for a Likudnik writer who supported the war on Iraq, which Senator Obama had opposed in 2004, real or merely a part of his election campaign? The President is supposed to be a liberal Democrat, and all his history since he was a university student confirms this. However, in the past two years, he did not pursue a liberal foreign policy at all, and I link this to his election campaign and his determination to win a second term, perhaps so that no one would say that the first African-American president of the United States had failed and was abandoned by the voters. I hope that my talk does not reflect my personal desires as much as it reflects actual reality. I then remind the reader of whatI had personally seen at the UN General Assembly Hall in 2010, when President Obama said that he wanted to see Palestine a full member of the UN, before reversing course in 2011 and leading the campaign against Palestinian membership of the UN. Which Barack Obama will we see in 2013, if he were to win the presidential race come October? Will we see the U.S. President who had reached out to the Arabs and Muslims at the beginning of his first term, or a President who sold his soul to the devil of American politicking? The Jewish Likudnik American extremist right is fighting to prevent Obama from winning a second term, and its rich supporters are financing the campaign of his rival, because they expect that Obama may come back liberated from the shackles of the lobby, and pursue a policy that furthers American interests, and not Israeli interests. I hope what they fear is true and I say, God willing.   ---- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.