New US President Donald Trump wants to build a wall along the border with Mexico, expel 10 million illegal immigrants from his country, and refrain from extending protection to Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Regardless, we are not worried because the policies of his predecessor Barack Obama were so bad that we can accept any of Trump’s policies.
Even if he maintained a truce with Iran, supported the Syrian regime staying in power, abstained from helping displaced Syrians and took no action to stop Russia’s regional expansion, we will not be shocked because it all happened during Obama’s presidency.
Terror has been spreading across the globe, hitting more than 11 European cities in an unimaginable fashion, due to the former administration’s indifference to the issue. Anarchy prevailed in seven Arab countries, encouraged by US policy whenever there was a crisis.
When revolution came to Libya, Obama was unresponsive until Daesh and other terrorist groups spread in the country and killed the US ambassador. In Egypt, Obama’s policy forced the army to depose former President Hosni Mubarak in the context of backing the revolution, then Obama left the country to be dominated by chaos, which led to military intervention.
Obama pressed for democratic change in Yemen, then pulled back his support and let armed rebels seize power. His stance on Bahrain was no better, as he tried to back the opposition and install it into power by force, but the Gulf states thwarted his plans by sending troops. Obama withdrew the remaining US troops from Iraq, then left the strategic country to fall prey to the Iranians and Daesh.
It was during Obama’s tenure that the region’s worst disaster in over 50 years took place: Syria’s tragedy. Thanks to his hesitation and misleading promises, the scale of destruction, killing and displacement suffered by the Syrian people increased further.
Obama abandoned Syria to bargain with Iran for a nuclear deal. It was later revealed that he granted Iran more than the lifting of sanctions and an end to the policy of containment. He handed over large sums of money to Tehran and kept silent about its military role in the region. Nor did he protect US citizens or navy forces from Iranian attacks in the region
Under Obama, chaos erupted across the region and the number of terrorist organizations worldwide more than doubled. No one asked him for a military intervention, since the one in Iraq during then-President George W. Bush’s era proved to be a failure.
Obama was wrong when he prevented his allies from providing arms to the Syrian opposition lest Iran got angry. He was wrong in underestimating the danger of terrorist groups that are intimidating the whole world.
After all these terrible failures throughout Obama’s eight-year presidency, I do not think anyone will worry about policies adopted by Trump because they would not be any worse. No one in the region expects political or military achievements from Trump, but his administration can achieve something important by deciding to stop Obama’s policy, which encouraged Iran to expand wars and let terrorist organizations spread.
• Abdulrahman Al-Rashed is a veteran columnist. He is the former general manager of Al Arabiya News Channel, and former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat, where this article was originally published.
