Having realized the mistakes and horrible outcomes of mistakes by Bush administration, much was expected of Barack Obama but unfortunately, he was not able to bring much evident diversion in the status-quo and the world is still suffering of the follies planted by Bush administration. It simply shows that the machinery of government or bureaucracy is so strong that a president elected for four years or even eight years may not be much successful to bring much tangible change and the same thing happened with Obama. It is the reason that, all the celebrations on the selection of Obama and the hopes from his reign later on turned out to be exaggerated optimism. However, it is the internal matter of the government of the United States and the factors involved may be better understood and analyzed by the political experts or think tanks working and observing the things in Washington or in the States.

As the final term of Obama is ending and preparations for the next presidential elections have already started, a few decisions of Obama administration need positive observation and appreciation. It was also during the rule of Obama that US had almost started another war in the war-torn Middle East by launching an attack on Syria but thanks to the bold voices from British Parliament, this plan came under severe criticism and had to be rolled back, first by its major ally Britain and then by the US as well. However, it remains a credit to Obama that US avoided another folly as Bush administration had initiated two such attacks in two restive regions of the world. Another positive work was his loud voice to close the notorious Guantanamo prison. Though the congress has rejected this decision to close the prison and transfer the prisoners to prisons inside America, Obama did his duty by taking a clear stance in this regard. It was also during his rule that drone attacks in different parts of the world were considerably decreased. No need to mention here the drastic consequences of these attacks in which majority were misdirected and harmed the American image badly when thousands of innocent citizens were targeted in different parts of the world. The latest addition in this list is the breakthrough in the Iran-West talks on Iran’s nuclear program. This could have never been possible without a positive signal from the United States, which was the major stakeholder in this issue.

One of the most important and historic breakthrough in the world politics was seen in Americas summit that was held in Panama City last week. In this summit, American president met with his Cuban counterpart, which is the first high-level meeting of the leaders of archrivals in more than 50 years. American President Obama and Cuban president Raul Castro held a face-to-face meeting and gave optimistic and positive comments in the following press conference. Obama also hinted on the possibility of removing Cuba’s name from the list of states that sponsor terrorism. Before this, US Secretary of State, John Kerry also met his Cuban counterpart, signaling the change on all the levels of American government. This shows the gradual process of normalization of ties between the two countries after more than five decades in which none of the sides had any gain. A number of surveys in the States had also shown that majority of the Americans are in favor of normalizing relations with Cuba. As expected, there has been slight criticism from a number of media outlets and political experts in the US who are not happy of the too much lenient and apologetic (as they used the term) behavior of President Obama in these talks. They are not happy of the fact that Cuba is still a country ruled by a Communist party and it seems to be a complete diversion from the policies of US that was in practice since the cold war started between the two blocs of the world after the Second World War. It is hoped that with the increase of contacts between the two countries, US sanctions may be lifted from Cuba and both the nations may be able to open their embassies. According to political and economic experts, this would open a number of opportunities of trade and commerce for both the countries and would equally benefit the people of both the countries.

It simply means that US has realized that its policy of alienation, differences and enmity has not worked and better and more logical strategies must be adopted for the betterment of the involved countries and of the world in general. The failed strategy contained so many strange and irrational factors. First was the factor of fear. It was feared that every country not in the capitalist bloc was enemy and would definitely try to harm the States. As the statistics and ground realities show, this was just a fear, which kept both the sides on alert. Due to this fear, decades long cold war was fed and billions of dollars were wasted on defense from both the sides. The fear and enmity could have been brought to an end and billions of dollars could have been easily saved by some positive statements and handshakes from the leaders of both the sides. Another factor was to declare someone as your enemy. Once a nation was declared enemy, all the hopes and possibilities of normal relations were burnt down and instead, fears and doubts replaced them and both the sides lived in a condition of continuous unrest and suspicions.

It is also sad that, even though having a number of wise and intelligent leaders on both the sides, no one hardly tried to take initiative that should normalize the relations between the two states. It was largely due to the fear that no one wanted to be blamed for breaking the status-quo and looking at the things from a different angle. On the other hand, the doubts and speculations of cold-war era only added to the worsening relations between different nations.

President Obama is going to be a page-turner by some of his decisions in the final months of his presidency. Though the world scenario is not so hopeful having a look at the flames of war and destruction in Middle East, Africa, Afghanistan and of course, Ukraine but the recent improvement in the ties of USA and Cuba has given us a new hope and also a new direction. Instead of declaring a nation the enemy and closing all the doors of hope, more positive expectations are needed to be promoted. As the most important nation of the world, majority of responsibility lies on the shoulders of USA. Just like the case of Cuba, doors of improved relations can be opened with Iran, China, Russia, Venezuela, Syria, and all the other nations of the world that are considered to be enemies and this negative strategy and perception has done no good for anyone. The world is in need of peace and negotiations more than any other time of history and this can only begin with positive expectations and perceptions.