Thursday 21 July 2011

Someone is missing George

In the 230 odd years that America has run its own affairs, it has always been a controversial country. Anyone with a leaning towards claiming it as a force for good or not has just as many arguments as the other side and since the Berlin Wall came down (thank you David Hasselhoff) it has been the only World superpower for the past 20 years.
Throughout the 90's i was unaware of any particular dislike for the United States above the usual sniping but it's global reputation fell through the floor in the 00's with its Middle East adventures.
With a couple of invasions and being best friends with the country seen as the enemy, it is hardly surprising that America was widely disliked in the Middle East when George W Bush had his face in the White House window.
Then along came Obama, promising to end the wars, repair Americas reputation in the area and generally be the opposite of Bush and Americas reputation climbed slightly, then slumped to a level below where Bush had left it.
Seems amazing that under Obama, America is even more unpopular now than under Bush considering what Bush got up to. Poll here.
The reason seems to be that it was the initial raising of hopes by Obama and the dashing lack of results with regards to removing American troops from the area, the extending of conflicts with Pakistan and Libya and the steadfast backing of Israel. The way America seemed ponderously slow in getting behind the Arab Spring and then picking and choosing who should go and who should remain hasn't helped matters either.
There was a poster somewhere in America not long ago that posed the question 'Missing me yet?' with a photograph of a beaming George W Bush. Amazingly, it seems the people of the Middle East are.

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