OBAMA; MAN ON A MISSION

I never cease to be amazed by the ability of politicians to change sides seamlessly.

Not very long ago, countries such as Egypt, Libya and Syria had full support from most of the western world, including the USA. In the last few weeks, the USA initially withdrew support from President Mubarak in Egypt, then from Gaddafi in Libya and now from Assad in Syria. Nothing has really changed in any of these countries except that internal events suggested that it might be in the interests of the USA to  support local populist uprisings, which they did. Egypt got rid of Mubarak in a relatively bloodless coup, though what will happen to the ex-President may be less than bloodless; Gaddafi is intent on ensuring that his country will sink with him, and we have yet to find out how Assad will decide to respond.

At the same time that the USA was making these somersaults, so were many other western nations, including our own. All of a sudden, foreign leaders that we'd been happy to trade with for years, or even decades, were declared 'beyond the pale', ' persona non grata' and so on. Why this sudden change in approach ? Is this just politicianns being fickle ?

I suspect the truth is that, in the continuing aftermath of the 'Cold War', there has to be an enemy to confront in order to maintain the fiction that some countries have to have a controlling influence in order to prevent Armageddon. The Americans initially rounded on Iraq, then the focus moved to Al Qaeda and Afghanistan, and now we've moved on to 'what comes next ?'. Armed forces need exercise and practice, weapons need real trials and, in the absence of a real enemy, states have to manufacture threats to justify the use of their forces in conflict situations. Hence, we invade Iraq and Afghanistan, and will quite probably invade Syria before long; then it may well be Iran. The one middle-east country that's immune from invasion or censure is Israel, the made-up country that the USA will support until doomsday because of its own over-riding political interests, and yet he even appears to be suggesting they need to change their approach.

President Obama has said that the USA will now support 'reform' in the Arab world, including its 'transition to democracy'. Will he also really support the Palestinians who have been so shockingly subjugated by Israel ? Is democracy what everyone really needs or wants ? The truth is that Obama needs to build a platform on which to base his re-election campaign next year and he is currently in trouble. So far, he's achieved very little and is in danger of being the worst President, other than his immediate predecesor, since at least the 1920s; making a lot of jingoistic noise and pretending to save the world is an ideal way of improving his position. God Help the rest of us while he gets on with his own career.