{"id":7216,"date":"2017-01-16T12:43:24","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T07:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/jwt2015\/?p=7216"},"modified":"2017-01-16T12:43:24","modified_gmt":"2017-01-16T07:43:24","slug":"obama-hoped-to-transform-the-world-it-transformed-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jworldtimes.com\/old-site\/studykit\/currentaffairs\/daily-articles\/obama-hoped-to-transform-the-world-it-transformed-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama Hoped to Transform the World. It Transformed Him."},"content":{"rendered":"

By ADAM SHATZ<\/span><\/span>

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When Barack Obama entered office, the hopes that he raised in his own country were exceeded only by the hopes he raised abroad. Mr. Obama tapped into those hopes with his inspirational rhetoric about a \u201ctransformational\u201d presidency, and his promises were scarcely less dramatic. America would be steered back on track, working with other countries to meet the challenges of what he often called an \u201cinterdependent\u201d world, from terrorism and poverty to financial crisis and global warming.<\/p>\n

Rapturous crowds thrilled to his speech in Berlin in 2008, a few months before he was elected; less than a year into his presidency, the jury in Oslo awarded him a Nobel Peace Prize for his \u201cvision\u201d of a world without nuclear weapons, as if he were a poet rather than a head of state. Expectations ran so high that few spotted the contradictions in Mr. Obama\u2019s project, which sought to usher America into an era of relative decline and yet still somehow achieve transformative results. Being commander in chief prevented Mr. Obama from speaking frankly about the growing constraints on American power. But no one would experience them more sharply \u2014 or more frustratingly.<\/p>\n

This was, in part, the legacy handed down to him by George W. Bush\u2019s truly transformational presidency, which envisioned a post-Cold War order of limitless American power. Mr. Bush created a new reality in the Middle East and trapped Mr. Obama in a war he had opposed in Iraq, and one that couldn\u2019t be won in Afghanistan. Though he sought to reduce America\u2019s footprint, Mr. Obama would distinguish himself as an even more zealous hunter of terrorists than Mr. Bush, presenting the assassination of Osama bin Laden as a centerpiece of his re-election campaign, even as he made no secret of seeing terrorism as an exaggerated threat. Extraordinary measures were required to begin undoing the extraordinarily destructive Bush legacy, but Mr. Obama proved mostly incapable of them. He did not transform the world; the world transformed him.<\/p>\n

Eight years ago, Mr. Obama suggested a messenger from a dreamy, multicultural future: the son of a Kenyan father and a white American mother; a well-traveled cosmopolitan who had spent much of his childhood in Indonesia, seemingly at home wherever he planted his feet. His vision of international diplomacy stressed the virtues of candid dialogue, mutual respect and bridge building. His famous address to the Islamic world, given at Cairo University in 2009, was a judicious balance sheet of past wrongs and an eloquent plea to turn a new page in history.<\/p>\n

Continue reading the main story<\/p><\/div>\n

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