You see, that's how Obama was foisted on us. We were told that the world hates the US because of George Bush. He creates more terrorists by keeping Gitmo open. He is too trigger happy. He goes around the world bombing places. If you just elect this worldly figure who has actually lived in the third world and understands them, then the US will once again be loved. After the election, he went around the world and dutifully recited the case of the left against America, you know, the usual, dropping the A- bomb, supporting dictators, polluting the air, using up world's resources etc. etc. What did we get in return for all that self-bashing? More US flags are burning, first US ambassador is killed in a generation and cries of death to America has never been louder. Now you are coming out and singing the same tune again. I am sorry but we have tried that bill of good and we ain't buying again.
Flint, you know I try to take the middle ground on most issues even though I'm VERY liberal when it comes to civil liberties and tend to be more concervative on immigration or believe in responsible fiscal policies. If I was an American citizen, I would not agree with Obama on many domestic policies (like how much focus he has put on healthcare) or even foreign issues (I like the Republicans' hawkish stand on some interventionist policies), but as an independant observer, I think Obama's foreign policy has been top notch. It hasn't been perfect by any standards and I don't think that's ever going to be possible under any president (because of the complexities of international relations), but they haven't been short-sighted and the US image abroad has really changed - I'm not just basing that on articles that I read (and I often check news articles from all around the world), but on observations on the ground and from talking politics with people in different countries. You couldn't start a conversation about politics 10 years ago in any part of the western world even, without some serious anger or resentment spewing out about Americans for those who take their politics seriously and non-stop jokes from the light-hearted. Now, when you talk to people, they don't even mention anything negative about the US and Merkel has become the new Bush and the target of resentment and humour.
Look, what happened in Bengazi was regrettable, but you're never going to eliminate these types of incidents completely in countries where fanatic Islamist are hell bent on portraying the west, particularly the US as pure evil. Their sole purpose is to cause divisions and instigate reactions where they can say, see we told you the US is evil and Sharia law is the way to go. I was 100% with McCain on the need to take a stronger stance on Libya two years ago. Obama's response was very reserved and calculated and the result of that was the Libyan people as a whole (not the fantics) view the US as a country who helped them during their struggle and that's why the Navy didn't have to get involved and drop 100 bombs to get rid of the militants and the people themselves pourd onto the streets and kicked them out of their cities. That's actually a perfect example of how the Amercian foreign policy is now working and creating more regional friends than foes. The same calculated response went into Tunisia, Yemen and Egypt, all of which had more Islamist tendencies than Iran did in 1978, yet we haven't seen a single new Islamic Republic come to power. The middle East is a very complicated place and we can't just look at individual events and how things shape up in the short term, but what the medium and long term effects are for individual actions or policies. Myanmar is another example outside the ME and even the Cubans and North Koreans are embarking on the type of economic transformation now that has never happened before. What I've noticed is that when you take outside pressure )threat of military action) off these types of governments, you also take away the only leg they're standing on, which is telling their citizens they're what's needed to counteract that foreign pressure and the focus naturally turns back into their own domestic policies and how their citizens view those policies.
And there's no better example of all of this than Iran where after all of these sanctions, because all the military huff and puff and rhetoric hasn't been there, you see people more frustrated with the government and even inside IR's own ranks turning against one another, rather than focusing on the US or the West in general. We have never seen this ferocity of cyber and economic attacks on Iran since the IR came into power, as we have seen in the last two years, yet the only thing the IR has been able to do is say we're okay, none of this is working and look at our technological and military achievements we've made. Thye've been weakened in Syria, even Hamas is turning to the anti-IR Qatar and Hezbollah just lost a huge chunck of its credibility in the past few weeks. The Russsians and the Chinese are happy that they have a say and some influece on global conflicts and Assad will eventually fall - it's not a question of if, but when at this point. The calculated response on Syria has not strengthened any Islamists in the Arab countries, rather strenghtened US's relationship with all the players - including Iran which hasn't been given the pretext of starting a regional conflict as an act of desperation. Yes, patience is not one of my virtues either, but I'd be hard pressed not to admit that things are working - slowly, but surely.