President Barack Hussein Obama completes his first year in office today. Last year, exactly on this day, he took oath as first-ever non-white president in America’s history. The son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas, Obama shattered two-century-old race barrier. It was Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream come true. Obama’s election as president was a miracle but he won the election not because he was black. He got elected because he was a fresher and smarter candidate with no prior political baggage.

There was another reason for this miracle to happen. America was fed up with the Bush legacy and wanted a clear break from those eight years of domestic failure and external belligerence. There was a feeling among the American people that for the first time since John F Kennedy, they had a different kind of leader whose presence in the White House not only gave it a new ‘facelift’ but also symbolised hope for change.

In his election campaign, Obama was eloquent enough to project himself as the harbinger of change in America’s outlook and behaviour. He ran on a platform for change, and gave a message of new hope which inspired not only his own people but also those around the world. At home, he said he would turn over the languishing economy. Abroad, he pledged to end the war in Iraq and defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

He had been speaking of the Bush era as a bleak chapter in American history. “America, we are better than those last eight years,” he asserted while pledging to restore what he called “our lost sense of common purpose.” At the Denver Convention, while laying out his vision of hope and change, Obama drew a sombre picture of America’s defining moment while laying the blame squarely with “a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W Bush.”

In his inaugural address, President Obama explained how he would make the difference in America’s policies and in the lives of Americans as well as those of the people of the world. But then he also listed the multiple challenges of Bush’s terrible legacy which included wars, global image erosion, shattered economy, depleted social security, health-care crisis and decaying education system. One year later, Obama seems helpless. There is no sign of the promised change anywhere.

Obama had told his people that the challenges ahead were real and serious and they were many but he declared exuding confidence: “Know this, America, they will be met.” Now that he has completed his first year in office, the American public as well as the world at large is wondering what happened to the promises he made to them, especially on issues of global peace and security and on ending the two ‘bloody’ wars that his predecessor left for him.

The American people and the media as indeed the whole world are convinced that fighting wars was a mistake that Obama should have redressed. According to the Washington Post, “in the name of the war on terror, we have invaded and occupied a country that had nothing to do with the attacks of 9/11, we have emboldened our enemies, we have lost and taken many lives, we have spent trillions of dollars, we have sacrificed civil liberties, and we have jettisoned our commitment to human dignity.”

No other nation has done greater damage to its own global prestige and credibility because of its misdirected policies and misplaced priorities. Ironically, most of these policies have given no relief to the world in terms of peace and development, nor have they brought any political or economic dividends to the US itself. It is experiencing one of the worst fiscal crises of its history by waging wars in anger after the 9/11 atrocity. The ‘war on terror’ is now considered a ‘wicked’ war that has not gone beyond retribution and retaliation.

Washington’s overbearing global conduct during the Bush era not only brought a serious backlash among foreign populations but also sparked anti-Americanism all over the world reflecting global dyspathy to the US unilateralism, its self-righteousness, its international conduct including the blatant use of force in Iraq and elsewhere, and as the late Robert McNamara said, “its contempt for moral and multilateral imperatives.” Obama has done nothing to change this global perception.

With growing anti-Americanism all over the world, there is equally growing concern in the US today over the challenges that this universal phenomenon poses to US global interests and policy objectives. Public opinion polls show a marked increase in this phenomenon over the last few years in much of the world. A recent study by a bi-partisan group of national security experts from American governmental and non-governmental sectors concluded that anti-Americanism, not terrorism, was America’s biggest problem.

The report acknowledged that “by flexing military might, ignoring multilateral institutions, and trying to transform the domestic politics of other states, we have triggered a backlash that increases extreme anti-Americanism, discourages key actors from fully cooperating with us, and weakens our global authority.” There is a need for ‘self-reappraisal’ in Washington to identify the real causes, motivations, attitudes and criticisms that have over the decades contributed to global anti-Americanism.

Interestingly, during his visit to France last year, President Obama did not mince words in calling out his own country for ‘arrogant’ patriotism as against Europe’s ‘insidious’ anti-Americanism. He admitted “in America, there is a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world, and at times America had shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive” while in Europe, there is anti-Americanism that is at once casual, but can also be insidious.

The graph of anti-Americanism in Pakistan as elsewhere in the world has also been sky-rocketing in recent years despite all that the US claims to be doing to help Pakistan’s long-term interests as a ‘friend and an ally.’ There is in fact a pervasive feeling all over the world that the US is not a ‘steadfast and reliable’ friend, and that its self-serving policies had contributed to most of the current problems in different parts of the world, including our own region where US nuclear and defence deals with India have created serious strategic imbalances.

Against this backdrop, the change of leadership in Washington was seen as watershed opening for change of direction in America’s thinking and behaviour. Obama was expected to bring paradigm shift in US global policies and priorities to redress its strategic faux pas and correct its negative perception as an ‘arrogant superpower’ which in its behaviour is “hegemonic, unilateralist, interventionist and exploitative.” If anything, Obama’s policies in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the world have only deepened this perception.

President Obama may have been sincere initially when he intended to do and undo many things but in this one year of his presidency, he has not gone beyond rhetoric and has only been grappling with his faltering ‘strategies’ contrary to his own avowed mission. The mid-term elections are not too far. Obama and his Democratic Party are up for an early verdict on their performance, and there is a long checklist to judge on his unkept promises.

Obama had promised a new America which would be true to its values at home, and which would also be at peace with the rest of the world. His new America is nowhere in sight. He is fast losing the momentum on his pledges and commitments. American public opinion is increasingly losing patience with his policies which in essence are no different to those of his predecessor.

He has no magic wand but he could at least restore America’s moral standing so that it quickly recovers from its global alienation and perception as an ‘arrogant power’.

Apparently he is caught in a struggle against the neocon remnants in American ‘establishment’ with the Pentagon and the CIA calling the decisive shots in their lead role.

Obama was awarded last year’s Nobel Peace Prize rather prematurely but it was a timely ‘call for action’ and an incentive to encourage him to remain steadfast in his mission. He must regain his lost momentum lest he is crossed as one-term president. Obama must go ahead and bring peace and justice to the world that his predecessor had turned upside down. But can he do it?

The writer is a former foreign secretary. Email: shamshad1941@ yahoo. com