Near Universal Enmity

Before his swearing-in as US President, Barack Hussein Obama was supposed to be the force that would unite the globe- a sort of anti-George W Bush- who even won the Nobel Peace Prize, largely in anticipation of future achievement. In the event, that bringing the world together has never quite materialized. In fact, America may be held in lower standing in much of the world than during W's Presidency. The Arab and Muslim world either feared or loved Bush. Formerly allied nations Saudi Arabia and Bahrain now regard the US with suspicion and contempt, fearing that Obama is favoring Iran and Shia Islam, and allowing the Mad Mullahs of Tehran to develop the capacity for nuclear weapons with all the capacity for extortion and violence Iranian weapons of mass destruction would surely bring. Obama is seen as abandoning the people of Iraq and Syria to sectarian violence on an unprecedented scale. Obama is despised by Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, and thought to have done less for the rest of Africa than his predecessor with Bush's well-documented effort to fight HIV and AIDS across the continent. The world witnessed how Obama was thanked for his intervention in Libya with the Benghazi Massacre. Obama is hated by many Mexicans who believe the guns he allowed in through Fast and Furious fanned the flames of violence there and killed at least hundreds and is not well-regarded by others because of his failure to deliver on promises of immigration reform. China sees weakness in Obama and is supplanting the US for Pacific hegemony. North Korea's brash young dictator toys with Obama who Pyongyang sees as neither serious nor threatening. Russia did not press the "reset" button that Obama's first Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered, and holds Obama in low esteem. Great Britain rightly felt rebuffed when Obama became the first US President to favor Argentina's claims to the Falkland Islands (Las Malvinas), and sent back the bust of stalwart ally and champion of liberty Winston Churchill. Even Canada has questioned delays to the Keystone Pipeline, which the Canadian government sees as a positive for both nations. Obama has not moved people closer together, but, in fact, further apart.