Has Obama lost all touch with reality concerning Russia?

For eight years many conspiracy theories have surrounded the Presidency of Barack Obama.

Some say he is not a natural born American, others say he’s a secret Islamist, others question his loyalty and patriotism, and others question the sincerity of his marriage.

I’ve generally shied away from most of these theories, not because I believe all to be without merit, but because Barack Obama’s public failures, embarrassments and actions which run contrary to the interests of the American people and to world peace, have given me more than enough material to work with.

But in his last months as President, Obama continues to show his true colours and it is a very ugly and disturbing sight. He is acting in a manner that is vindictive, vengeful and as one would say of certain types of torture in the American penal system, cruel and unusual. Something is up.

His expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats from the United States, and his additional sanctions regime, are signs of personal instability. He is projecting all of the woes of the Democratic Party’s shambolic performance against the Republicans, who couldn’t even unit behind their own controversial candidate, onto Russia.

It’s become compulsively obsessive at this point.

So intent is Obama on thwarting any Russian success in Syria that he has actually pushed a close US ally – Turkey – into the embrace of Moscow.

Obama has seen China overtake America’s erstwhile economic prowess in a manner that represents a point of no return.

The Philippines, once a loyal American vassal, is now ruled by a man who calls the American president ‘a son of a whore’.

Japan and Russia are engaging in diplomacy without the US being present.

Obama has even managed to help a confident David Cameron lose the Brexit vote, and has strained the the US’s super-alliance with Israel for domestic political traction against Donald Trump.

It just so happens that I find most of these developments positive for world peace. But the fact remains, in pursuing hawkish American global-hegemony, Obama has done more to strengthen multi-polarity in geo-politics than many a genuine American peace maker (think Ron Paul) could dream of.

Beyond just getting his policies wrong, Obama’s execution of policy decisions is so incompetent that  he has managed to score more own goals than a dyslexic footballer. The fact he blames all of his woes on Russia is surreal, bordering on the macabre. Even more strange is his holier than thou attitude when Russia responds in turn.

When Russia is ruled by great leaders, she always attracts other countries to her sphere of influence. Under tsar Alexey I the Cossacks living under the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth became a key part of the Russian state. Under Alexander I an emergent Serbia sought support from Russia as did a young Greek state. Under Alexander III, Russia’s influence amongst the Slavic peoples of the Balkans grew immensely. Under Brezhnev half the world saw the Soviet Union as a beacon of liberation against the imperialist west.

Today, Vladimir Putin attracts respect and fraternal partners with both great and small states throughout the world. This fits into a long tradition of states looking to Russia for security when Russia is strong.  Today however this process has been massively augmented by the way Obama has pushed so many nations out of the US’s sphere of influence – from Egypt to Bulgaria, from the Philippines to Hungary.

Russia’s increased global prestige is as much to do with the US looking hysterical and compromised under Obama, as it is to Russia’s calm and intelligent leadership.

But for Obama, this isn’t the reality. For him, Russia is devious or worse. Sergei Lavrov put it this way:

“The outgoing US administration of Barack Obama, accusing Russia of all mortal sins, trying to blame us for the failure of its foreign policy initiatives among others, as you know, groundlessly pushed further allegations that Russia intervened in the US election campaign at the national level”.

Obama’s recent behaviour reminds me of a slogan used by the Democratic Party in 1964 to tar virulent anti-Communist Barry Goldwater, who himself became something of a pro-Russian towards the end of his life, “In your guts you know he’s nuts”.

There is something seriously wrong with Barack Obama.