The successful end to the saga on Iran's nuclear program and the symbolic rapprochement with Cuba gave the current US president extra worthiness on the international level. According to Folha, it all seemed well, until the Russian airstrike campaign in Syria and the situation in Afghanistan that recently culminated with the bombing of a hospital in Kunduz revealed the true nature of Obama's policies — failure, disappointment and inconsistency.
Moscow's military involvement in Syria caught Washington by surprise. Nobody expected the Russian airstrikes to be that effective. The US-led international coalition has been bombing ISIL targets for over a year, but to no avail. In fact, the terrorist organization has managed to increase its territories under its control despite the US-led airstrikes.
Washington announced it had stopped the inefficient program of training rebels, who were supposed to fight both against ISIL and troops loyal to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. However, the operation ended up being a total fiasco: over $500 million spent resulted in less than 10 rebels actually fighting ISIL on the ground, while the rest either deserted or what's worse joined the ranks of terrorists the US is fighting against.
The bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan revealed the full scale of poor US policies in the country, Folha said. Now Washington has decided to stay longer in Afghanistan, but a question that begs an answer is what for?
In 2014, Washington ended its combat mission and since then Afghan forces have been in charge of the country's security. The Taliban has recently stepped up its activity. In September they seized the city of Kunduz, which became its largest territorial gain in 14 years.
Those who know history remember that the only reason Taliban exists today is because of the US-sponsored program that trained extremists to fight Soviet troops in Afghanistan during the 1980s.
