PRESIDENT OBAMA AND A MISSED OPPORTUNITY - HE NEEDED TO HAVE BEEN MORE PUTINESQES! THE END.

For a President who took office mouthing much ado about peace and ending America's wars abroad, President Obama has done much to making himself into 'a war President', instead of one of peace. President Obama has signally failed to establish a decent working relationship with the president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin. This failure has meant that he is leaving office, after 8 years in power, with the world in a more dangerous state than when he took office in 2008. 

He has failed to accommodate Russian concerns about Nato's encroachment on the borders of the Russian Federation, and to join an effective anti-Daesh/Isil alliance with Russia and other allies of the Syrian state, in the proxy war being fought on Syrian territory. All because of the west's patronising and elitist approach towards all things Russian.

For a President who is now making much about how power will force Donald Trump to be 'pragmatic', in his stewardship of America and the world, it is difficult to appreciate President Obama's own lack of 'pragmatism' regarding the Ukraine conflict, the secession of Crimea back to Russia, and the need for the Syrian Government to see off the rebels, both the 'moderates' and the Daesh factions, in order to bring more stability and security to the Middle East.

One wonders if President Obama would not have been more successful, or, since his limited success might soon be dismantled by the incoming Republicon Presidency, leave a durable legacy from his Presidency, if he had been less 'pragmatic' and more Putinesque in how he conducted his presidency. It might have been the case that he was too 'pragmatic', to the point of being too willing to be swept along with the 'establishment stream' which he found in Congress, in government, instead of employing appropriate strategies and tactics to change the course of the main stream.

Arguably, President Putin has been more successful in transforming Russian society to meet what he and his government consider to be better equipped to meet the Federation's needs, including its defensive response to Nato's encroachment, and the maintenance of Russian bases in Syria. Not so with President Obama, who glibly speaks of the preeminence of "American values.' 

The same values which apparently sees no contradiction to America bombing Yemen into rubble and killing its citizens. The same values which do not prevent America from invading and fighting a proxy war in Syrian, thereby compromising that country's sovereignty. But which are being used as a raison detre' to subject Russia and Europe to serious economic sanctions, because of Russian involvement in the Ukraine crisis.

Thus is America still in a war situation in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Syria. Thus is America, under President Obama, supporting the rebels in Syria, in order to use them as a counter weight against the government of Syria, and is supporting the Saudi coalition in Yemen, in order to use them as a counter-weight to Iran. Yes, President Obama, like so many presidents before him - probably except for Jimmy Carter - has been a tool - wittingly and/or unwittingly of the conservative establishment forces controlling the American Congress and society.

Once again, the 'system' the 'establishment' has prevailed in protecting itself from being fundamentally changed. And now, we have the incoming President Elect, Donald Trump, making grand assertions about the fundamental changes he is going to make. 

We know that the 'system', the 'establishment', is more responsive to the interventions of the Republicons/the conservatives, but, is President Trump likely to have any more success than President Obama, at changing them, and, if so, will his changes be any more durable than those of Obama and others before him? 

A powerful river does not allows its course to be changed, unless it is forced to do so by a more powerful forces, or an agent which is able to useits own strength against it. President Obama has not been able to achieve either, and was nullified in his attempts. 

President Elect Trump has indicated his intention to use unconventional means to achieve his goals, and not to play 'the system by its own rules', like President Obama has attempted to do, and failing big. Although Donald Trump lacks President Putin's diplomatic and strategic skills and acumen, he does seem to have the mindset and resolve to get things done, albeit, his way, which President Obama lacks.

So, as I said, President Obama needed to have been more Putinesque in his Presidency, which makes it even more of an irony that he failed to connect with President Putin, in working together to make the world a better place than when he came to power in 2008.