Eight years that changed America. Part II

8. Iraq. The Iraq war was a screw-up of such colossal magnitude that it's easy to forget how many discrete screw-ups went into the making of it. There were the nonexistent weapons of mass destruction and the nonexistent links between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. There's the humiliating spectacle of Secretary of State Colin Powell presenting hours of bogus testimony to the U.N. Security Council. There was Paul Wolfowitz's bizarre claim that the war would pay for itself, when the real price tag is now in excess of $1 trillion. And let us not forget the 4,000 Americans and 100,000 Iraqi civilians dead, more than 30,000 American soldiers wounded, and several million Iraqi refugees forced to flee their homes. A strategy that was supposed to bring U.S.-friendly democracy to the Middle East instead produced an empowered Iran and a more fragile balance of power in the region. The only thing more astonishing than the scope of these blunders is the fact that the former president does not regret his decision, even now.

Eight years that changed America. Part I

Exactly two years ago, on the 20^th of January, 2009 the first black American President moved into the White House. Since then everyone’s tenderness with the color of Barack Obama’s skin was replaced with disappointment in the hopes and expectations that he failed to live up to. Then there were apprehends regarding the abrupt drop of his popularity. It was getting worse and worse as it went. Democrats lost the midterm elections and, as a consequence, have lost the House majority. Emergence of a new political power (the Tea Party), deep economic crisis, weakening of American foreign policy positions in the world in general and particularly in Europe — all of that changed America, its public image in the world and it gives us a good reason to think about what’s happened.