Obama: three years of broken promises

Prensa Latina

Photo: AP photo

After three years of having been the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama has not fulfilled most of the promises that led him to become the first black president. With a meteoric run, the former Senator from Illinois captured with words in his speeches the hopes of millions of citizens to leave behind the neoconservative administration of George W. Bush, with its many wars and its economic crisis.

The politician of African-American origin won millions of supporters around the world by promising the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay, seeking a fresh start with Muslims and a different relationship with Latin America, among other subjects.

Three years later, Obama has not fulfilled a great deal of those promises, while his approval rating fell to historic levels, due, among other factors, to the contraction of key social indicators and increasing poverty.

The number of Americans who swell the ranks of the poor in 2010 reached the record figure of 49 million, that is to say, 16 percent of the population, while more than 13 million people comprise the large army of unemployed.

Although at the end of the year the last troops installed in Iraq were withdrawn (to only be transferred to Libya), the U.S. foresees maintaining a "strong diplomatic presence" in this country, with 16,000 employees, including private security and experts on trade and agriculture, all under the aegis of its embassy in Baghdad.

Nearly 15,000 soldiers remain in Kuwait and significantly reinforce their military presence in the Middle East region at a time when the Western powers arouse a possible armed conflict with the Islamic Republic of Iran because of its nuclear program for peaceful purposes.

In the case of Afghanistan, the announcement of the departure of the troops before 2014 follows a long conflict that, while it allowed the murder of the leader of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, it also registers thousands of military dead and shows evidence of an ungovernable territory for the occupiers, analysts point out.

A decade from the opening the prison at Guantanamo Bay, in southern Cuba, against the will of its people, Guantamamo still remains a center where prisoners are tortured and many are subject to indefinite detention.

In the case of Latin America, the Democrat's administration keeps intact the blockade against Cuba, while reinforcing its hostile rhetoric against popular governments such as Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua.

On October 9, 2009, Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his diplomatic efforts in nuclear disarmament, to obtain a peace process in the Middle East and promoting the fight against climate change."

The attributions above contrast with the intentions of the White House to install a missile shield in Europe, the non-recognition of a Palestinian state, while reinforcing military aid to its ally Israel, and the ignoring of the Kyoto Protocol to reduce the emissions of gases that cause the greenhouse effect.

The President, who aspires to be re-elected for another four years, entered 2012 with a level of sympathy of 48 percent, which, although representing an improvement over the 42 per cent in October, is still a bad sign for the general elections on November 6th.

According to surveys by the Washington Post and ABC television network, the likely Republican candidate for the nomination, Mitt Romney, has 48 percent acceptance, while they show the president is favored by 46 percent.

Translated from the Portuguese version by:

Lisa Karpova

Pravda.Ru