Hussain Abdul-Hussain

In 2008, TransCanada applied for a permit to build a 1200-mile pipeline to carry Canadian oil to the Gulf of Mexico. Despite overwhelming popular support for this measure in the US, President Barack Obama repeatedly ordered a review of the project, and has yet to decide on it. He has not said yes, but he has not said no either. This made the Canadian company announce that the pipeline would now extend from Canada's west to its east. Obama can take his time deciding, but life goes on, with or without him.

 

On Syria, Obama consulted with his generals who said a strike was not urgent. He also consulted with his top aides – three of whom are Senate veterans – who warned him that handing over powers of war to a divided Congress would undermine America's ability to act. Obama listened only to those who agreed with him, and just when Congress was about to defeat his proposal, Russia threw Obama a lifeline agreement, which put the US president and his foreign policy under the mercy of Moscow.

 

On Afghanistan, Obama was torn between endorsing a surge of troops, recommended by his generals, and his view of a diminished American role around the world. He split the difference and sent half the number of soldiers required.

 

And if you watched Zero Dark Thirty, a film whose release was timed to remind Americans of Obama's single foreign policy achievement shortly before the 2012 election, you might remember that the CIA agent on the case grew frustrated after more than 100 days had passed since having located Osama Bin Laden's hideout. Obama simply couldn't get himself to order that operation, and maybe got lucky that the world's top terrorist remained unaware that Washington had found him.

 

Welcome to the world of Barack Obama, where decisions are nuanced, incremental, ambiguous, contradictory, reluctant, late, and useless.

 

And while the absence of resolve can pass domestically for usual beltway politics, it is extremely hurtful to America's standing and interests overseas, something that Obama seems unable to understand.

 

Obama is honest and charming. He is a self-made lawyer and a charismatic politician. He is a family man with no distracting sideshows like mistresses or sexting. But Obama is clearly no leader.

 

Obama is not America's first charmer to fail as president. Before him, Jimmy Carter had captured the hearts of Americans. In 1976, the public waved posters of his smile, which many considered reassuring.

 

Like Carter, Obama's charm proved useless inside the Oval Office. Both presidents are known for ignoring advice and for micro-management. Both believed tyrants act in good faith.

 

Pride of his "success" in Syria made Obama unveil an exchange of letters with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Rumors suggest the two might meet at the UN General Assembly in New York next week.

 

But before boasting about another "breakthrough" with Iran, Obama might want to revisit Carter, who went out of his way to entertain Iran's Ruhollah Khomeini, and made his National Security Advisor Zbig Brezinsky meet Iranian Prime Minister Mahdi Bazarkan in Algeria in 1979. Only when Carter believed that he had his diplomatic breakthrough, Khomeini's thugs invaded the US Embassy in Tehran and took its staff as hostages.

 

In retrospect, we know that Khomeini feared that rivals, like the Communists, might outbid his anti-American populism. He also thought Washington was propping Bazarkan at his expense. Therefore, he ordered the invasion of the embassy. Bazarkan resigned.

 

Similarly, Iran's top ruler today, Ali Khaminei, might not be able to strike a deal with the US for fears that he might be outflanked on the right. He might let Rouhani try his hand. If Rouhani succeeds, he will throw him to the anti-American crowd. If Rouhani fails, Khaminei will use him as a scapegoat to justify Iran's diplomatic and economic failures.

 

Carter left the White House from the backdoor, and he remains an outcast today, not because he was a one-termer, but because he projected weakness. He wanted to lead by example by turning down the heat at the White House, to conserve energy, and wore a cardigan when addressing Americans on TV. What Americans saw, however, was a president who looked like an ailing grandparent, and thus replaced him with someone who could project power and confidence.

 

Obama has been obsessed with his legacy. He presumably listened to popular opinion on Syria, but not on the XL Pipeline. He authorized military intervention in Libya without Congress, but not in Syria. He failed to court Congress to pass laws on guns, immigration, and jobs. He became a liability to his own party and did not stand by his own candidates Susan Rice and Larry Summers to become Secretary of State and Fed Chairman. 

 

Obama might call it style, but it is clearly reluctance, weakness, and ultimately failure. So far, this is his legacy.