By Dmitry Orlov
December
21, 2016 "Information
Clearing House"
-
Sometimes a case looks weak because there is no
“smoking gun”—no obvious, direct evidence of
conspiracy, malfeasance or evil intent—but once you
tally up all the evidence it forms a coherent and
damning picture. And so it is with the Obama
administration vis à vis Russia: by feigning hostile
intent it did everything possible to further
Russia’s agenda. And although it is always possible
to claim that all of Obama’s failures stem from mere
incompetence, at some point this claim begins to
ring hollow; how can he possibly be so utterly
competent… at being incompetent? Perhaps he just
used incompetence as a veil to cover his true
intent, which was always to bolster Russia while
rendering the US maximally irrelevant in world
affairs. Let’s examine Obama’s major foreign policy
initiatives from this angle.
Perhaps the greatest achievement of his eight years
has been the destruction of Libya. Under the false
pretense of a humanitarian intervention what was
once the most prosperous and stable country in the
entire North Africa has been reduced to a
rubble-strewn haven for Islamic terrorists and a
transit point for economic migrants streaming into
the European Union. This had the effect of pushing
Russia and China together, prompting them to start
voting against the US together as a block in the UN
Security Council. In a single blow, Obama assured an
important element of his legacy as a Russian agent:
no longer will the US be able to further its agenda
through this very important international body.
Next, Obama presided over the violent overthrow of
the constitutional government in the Ukraine and the
installation of an American puppet regime there.
When Crimea then voted to rejoin Russia, Obama
imposed sanctions on the Russian Federation. These
moves may seem like they were designed to hurt
Russia, but let’s look at the results instead of the
intentions. First, Russia regained control of an
important, strategic region. Second, the sanctions
and the countersanctions allowed Russia to
concentrate on import replacement, building up the
domestic economy. This was especially impressive in
agriculture, and Russia now earns more export
revenue from foodstuffs than from weapons. Third,
the severing of economic ties with the Ukraine
allowed Russia to eliminate a major economic
competitor. Fourth, over a million Ukrainians
decided to move to Russia, either temporarily or
permanently, giving Russia a major demographic boost
and giving it access to a pool of Russian-speaking
skilled labor. (Most Ukrainians are barely
distinguishable from the general Russian
population.) Fifth, whereas before the Ukraine was
in a position to extort concessions from Russia by
playing games with the natural gas pipelines that
lead from Russia to the European Union, now Russia’s
hands have been untied, resulting in new pipeline
deals with Turkey and Germany. In effect, Russia
reaped all the benefits from the Ukrainian
stalemate, while the US gained an unsavory,
embarrassing dependent.
Obama’s next “achievement” was in carefully
shepherding the Syrian conflict into a cul de sac.
(Some insist on calling it a civil war, although
virtually all of the fighting there has between the
entire Syrian nation and foreign-funded outside
mercenaries). To this end, Obama deployed an array
of tactics. He simultaneously supported, armed,
trained and fought various terrorist groups, making
a joke of the usual US technique of using “terrorism
by proxy.” He made ridiculous claims that the Syrian
government had used chemical weapons against its own
people, which immediately reminded everyone of
similarly hollow claims about Saddam’s WMDs while
offering Russia a legitimate role to play in
resolving the Syrian conflict. He made endless
promises to separate “moderate opposition” from
dyed-in-the-wool terrorists, but repeatedly failed
to do so, thus giving the Russians ample scope to
take care of the situation as they saw fit. He
negotiated several cease fires, then violated them.
There have been other achievements as well. By
constantly talking up the nonexistent “Russian
threat” and scaremongering about “Russian
aggression” and “Russian invasion” (of which no
evidence existed), and by holding futile military
exercises in Eastern Europe and especially in the
geopolitically irrelevant Baltics, Obama managed to
deprive NATO of any residual legitimacy it once
might have had, turning it into a sad joke.
But perhaps Obama’s most significant service on
behalf of the Russian nation was in throwing the
election to Donald Trump. This he did by throwing
his support behind the ridiculously inept and
corrupt Hillary Clinton. She outspent Trump by a
factor of two, but apparently no amount of money
could buy her the presidency. As a result of Obama’s
steadfast efforts, the US will now have a
Russia-friendly president who is eager to make deals
with Russia, but will have to do so from a
significantly weakened negotiating position.
As I have been arguing for the last decade, it is a
foregone conclusion that the United States is going
to slide from its position of global dominance. But
it was certainly helpful to have Obama grease the
skids, and now it’s up to Donald Trump to finish the
job. And since Obama’s contribution was especially
helpful to Russia, I propose that he be awarded the
Russian Federation’s Order of Friendship, to go with
his Nobel Peace Prize.