Obama has caused serious damage to the European Union before leaving office, and many years will be needed to mitigate the impact of his emotional farewell. Prior to bursting into tears, Obama gave a cool-headed order for the American armed forces and armored vehicles to be urgently transferred to Germany’s Bremerhaven.
The Baltic republics and Poland were also mobilized to receive Pentagon’s battalions. The purpose of these moves was not to improve European security but to damage the European-Russian relations as much as possible prior to President-elect Donald Trump taking office.
Washington benefits from the situation when Moscow and Brussels are in conflict rather than when they are cooperating. Only together with Russia, with its capacity and market, the European Union has the potential to become a strong and independent player on the international stage.
A strong EU and Russia, together, are serious and uncomfortable competitors for the US. Obama’s mission was to drive a wedge between these neighbors and to disintegrate them. And unfortunately, he succeeded.
Now, when the US forces got as close to Russia’s borders as possible, the relations between Russia and Brussels reached the highest degree of confrontation. Moscow’s message is that expansion of the US presence in Europe destabilizes the security situation in that region. Basically, the Russians are forced to perceive Europe as a threat because of Obama’s political actions. As a result of this, sanctions, and disagreements over Ukraine, a rapid thaw in the EU-Russia relationship is out of the question, which is exactly what Obama counted on.
It is hard to say what have astounded the Europeans most: Obama’s tears or the haste to send US armed personnel to Europe. All these years the US president was treated like a “lame duck”. However, only after losing the presidential race for Clinton, this “duck” turned into a monster, a real source of evil.
Obama used his last weeks in office to inflict as much damage on the EU and Russia as he possibly could. For that sake, he even sacrificed his image and will likely go down in history as an “evil duck”.
Apart from the Europeans, Trump will also feel the aftertaste from Obama’s tears. The new US president has reportedly been critical of NATO actions and intends to decrease its funding. He will have to deal with complex relationships of the alliance with Russia, Poland, and the Baltic republics. It is Trump who will ultimately have to pull out the US forces from Europe.
Before leaving, Obama managed to implement the NATO decisions taken during the NATO summit in Warsaw last year. To be governed by common sense, these decisions were premature and approved in a hurry by some of the European leaders because of the Ukraine crisis. Nowadays, the plans developed at that summit seem to be out of date and even preposterous in the new international landscape, as well as given the positive dialogue initiated between Washington and Moscow.
It is going to be tough to turn the tables on the Warsaw summit decisions, but it is possible. In order to achieve that, the European elites must drop their confrontation policy and finally admit that Obama, hiding behind his tears and deceptive speeches, simply lied to them to drive a wedge between Europe and Russia.
What should Europe do with US soldiers who have already started to arrive there? One suggestion is to put them into their own tanks and fighter jets and send home while breaking into tears of happiness from realizing the fact that “evil ducks” are not going to tread down the European land.
At the end of the day, elimination of Obama’s political legacy will lead to the new era of relations between Europe and Russia, which is going to revive the economy of the nations in Europe, help the EU defend itself from terrorism and relive military tension.
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