Obama's rhetoric on peace has been impeccable. But just at this time it has to be said almost everything he is actually striving to achieve is turning sour. In the Middle East, the Palestinians have now declared that their hopes in the new US President have "evaporated" while the Israeli Foreign Minister has openly stated that he doesn't believe peace is feasible. Meanwhile Obama's effort to forge a new more amenable relationship with Iran has become locked in exactly what he didn't want – a confrontation over Tehran's nuclear plans with deadlines set and threats of more painful sanctions. As for Afghanistan, the pervasive impression at the moment is of a White House in confusion in the light of a political situation that gone wrong and a mini-surge that has succeeded.
You can't blame it all on the man. Rarely has a new President with the ambition to change things been met with quite such unpropitious circumstances on the ground. It's not his fault that the Israelis have elected a right wing coalition opposed to most of the measures he deems necessary to get peace talks underway with the Palestinians. Nor could he have expected such a contested election result in Iran with all the uncertainties this has caused within the country's elite and in its external relations.
There's more in this vein, but you get the picture. All the rest of HIS failures are blamed on the people he surrounds himself with. But Obama himself? "Impeccable!"
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