Roberts: A Decisive, Global Power Shift Has Occurred

What the world has seen, instead, is a directionless, powerless, and often absent bumbler, with few, if any leadership skills, and a very muddled view of what outcomes he would like to achieve.

The Middle East, in particular, was an area that could have been his golden opportunity to shine given Obama’s early years living in an Islamic country, studying in an Islamic environment, and having a heritage that should have allowed him to connect with the major players in that troubled part of the world.  He was also handed a position as commander in chief of the most powerful military in the world.  He has wasted it all.

From his failure to manage and understand the Arab Spring, to the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, and now the huge shift of power moving from the United States to Russia, Obama has missed every opportunity to establish the U.S. as the dominant player by leading and directing the world to a more peaceful and stable situation.

Instead, under his leadership or lack thereof, ISIS has grown and is now threatening virtually all of Western Europe, and Obama can do little more than watch from afar and order the occasional drone strike and hope that somehow, somewhere there will be a lull in the conflict so that he can claim once again that Isis is contained.

Now Vladimir Putin and his Russian forces have stepped into the breach to confront and conquer the advancing tide of Muslim warriors. As Obama looks impotently on, Putin steps confidently forward and assures Western Europe that he will contain and defeat the threat of the barbarian thrust over the borders of German, France, Italy, and other western countries.

Putin clearly shows what a leader looks and acts like, and demonstrates how pitifully short Obama is of that measure.

It is yet another demonstration of how wide the divide is between what the world thought they were getting when Obama was chosen as the leader of the free world, and what he has actually turned out to be.

Perhaps among Obama’s advisors there are a few who are not drowning in hubris and can understand this sea change. Sputnik news reports that some high-level security advisors to Obama have advised him to withdraw US military forces from Syria and give up his plan to overthrow Assad. They advised Obama to cooperate with Russia in order to stop the refugee flow that is overwhelming Washington’s vassals in Europe. The influx of unwanted peoples is making Europeans aware of the high cost of enabling US foreign policy.

Several commentators, such as Mike Whitney and Stephen Lendman, have concluded, correctly, that there is nothing that Washington can do about Russian actions against the Islamic State. The neoconservatives’ plan for a UN no-fly zone over Syria in order to push out the Russians is a pipe dream. No such resolution will come out of the UN. Indeed, the Russians have already established a de facto no-fly zone.

Putin, without issuing any verbal threats or engaging in any name-calling, has decisively shifted the power balance, and the world knows it.

Washington’s response consists of name-calling, bluster and more lies, some of which are echoed by some of Washington’s ever more doubtful vassals. The only effect is to demonstrate Washington’s impotence.

Many and perhaps most Americans are uninterested or uninformed about world events and politics. They do not know how badly Obama has bungled his role and the degree to which the prestige and the power of the United States have been compromised by the former community organizer.

Nor do they comprehend how this loss may impact them in the future as the Russians extend their control over much of Europe and the Middle East as well as over the world economy. But to those who did not pay attention to anything other than the clarion call for “hope and change” in the 2008 presidential election, their choice of a leader who would not or could not lead may very well reap the whirlwind for the citizens of the United States and the world.

Source: www.liveleak.com