An amazing article to have in the leftie New York Times: The World Fears Trump's America. That's a Good Thing. Unusual in that it's severely critical of Obama's foreign policy. As of course it should be. His foreign policy has been catastrophic. The "red line" on Syria, ignored by Obama when it was crossed, was also a straight line to ISIS and the refugee crisis. For that alone he deserves to be excoriated.
/Snip
During the last eight years, President Obama showed what happens when the world's greatest power tries strenuously to avoid giving fright. He began his presidency with lofty vows to conciliate adversaries, defer to the opinions of other countries and reduce America's military commitments. Consequently, he received rapturous applause in European capitals and a Nobel Peace Prize. In the real world of geopolitics, however, the results have been catastrophic.
Mr. Obama's passivity in the face of provocations and his failure to enforce the "red line" in Syria led Russia, China and other adversaries to seek new gains at America's expense. His promises to "end the wars" in Iraq and Afghanistan satisfied the cosmopolitan chatterers of Stockholm, Paris and New York, but they deflated American allies in Baghdad and Kabul, and emboldened adversaries in Iran and Pakistan. So severe was the damage that he had to send troops back to Iraq in 2014, and had to abort his plans to withdraw all American forces from Afghanistan before leaving office.
