On a fine Thursday, the 22nd of June, former US President Barack Obama, who is no stranger to stirring the pot, decided to offer unsolicited advice to India on its 'human rights' scenario.

Now, this is the same Obama who has a rather colorful past, peppered with allegations of potential war crimes. Yet, he felt it was his place to suggest that the Biden administration should play schoolmaster and remind the Indian Prime Minister about the importance of protecting the 'Muslim minority in a predominantly Hindu India.' He even went so far as to hint at another 'partition' if India, under the stewardship of Modi, doesn't toe the line.

These eyebrow-raising comments were generously doled out by the former US President during a chit-chat with CNN news anchor Christiane Amanpour. And the timing? Just a few hours before PM Modi was about to deliver a significant address at the joint session of the US Congress.

He pontificated, "If President (Joe Biden) happens to have a tête-à-tête with Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi, the topic of safeguarding the Muslim minority in a predominantly Hindu India is worth a mention."

Obama, in his infinite wisdom, further opined, "If I were to engage in a dialogue with Prime Minister Modi, I would certainly remind him that if the rights of minorities are not upheld, there's a high probability that India might start to unravel at some point...That would be against India's interests."

It's rather ironic, isn't it? The very same Obama, who now preaches about protecting the interests of Muslims in India, has a track record that includes being indirectly responsible for the demise of hundreds of innocent people in Muslim-majority countries. But of course, when it comes to offering advice, it's always easier to point fingers at others, isn't it?

Barack Obama is a War Criminal

Ah, the presidency of Barack Obama, often hailed as a pivotal moment in the United States' history. After all, he was the first black president, and his tenure is often painted as a beacon of peace in the global political landscape.

Images of Obama, the friendly statesman with a magnetic charm, are etched in our minds. He was the thoughtful politician whose historic victory conveniently eclipsed the countless atrocities committed by the US since the arrival of European colonizers.

But let's not get carried away by this glossy narrative. The reality of his tenure was far from benign. It was, in fact, a reign of terror, a grotesque spectacle designed to keep the world's oppressed under the yoke of a dehumanizing status quo. And who were the oppressed? The working class, the unemployed, and the peasantry of Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

Now, when you compare Obama's presidency to the nationalism of Donald Trump or the deceptive charm of George W. Bush, it might seem like a breath of fresh air. But let's not forget, the air was still thick with the stench of imperialism and white supremacy.

Obama's victory was seen as a triumph for people of African descent, both in the US and globally. Given the painful history of African peoples, marked by slavery, Jim Crow, lynching, and brutal colonial conquests, it was easy to believe that a new era had dawned.

In Kenya, Obama is viewed with much favor. Among African-Americans, there was a sincere hope that Obama would usher in a new period, breaking away from racist, sexist, and capitalist oppression. His liberal tone, even his denouncement of the war in Iraq, was charming. But alas, it was all surface-level charm.

In the war-ravaged regions of the Middle East and other Orientalist regions like Somalia, one might have hoped that Obama would have proclaimed, "NO TO WAR!" or "DISMANTLE NATO, AND DEFUND THE US MILITARY AND POLICE!" But alas, those were just hopes.

Perhaps, just perhaps, he could have implored the American ruling elite to relent and stop the vainglorious and illusory message of neoliberal capitalism. Imperialism. Patriarchal, sexist domination. And illegal sanctions against Cuba, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Iran, et al. Such was the hope. And it was all understandable.

But was it even perceptible that one of his first acts would be the oversight of the bailing out of giant American banks and corporations following the global crisis of 2008? That he would persist with the imperialist wars of aggression in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Syria? Was it a mammoth surprise of sheer shock, utter disbelief and dejection that he continued to funnel military and economic support to the apartheid state of Israel in its egregious violence and dehumanization of Palestinians?

An insightful perspective of American politics and its imperialist foreign policy would put asunder such surprises. Barack Obama exactly turned out like Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush; and, most significantly, he perpetuated the ruinous, murderous, and inhumane stratagems of oppression, exploitation, and death that his predecessor George W. Bush was – and still is – proud of.

Yet, at all times, Barack Obama came off as some sort of saint who was seemingly constrained by impervious metaphysical forces. The coming in of the rabidly racist Donald Trump played a supremely paramount role in whitewashing Obama’s crimes against humanity. For all his atrocities against the interests and welfare of all peoples of the earth, Obama was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. The hegemonic globalorder of American imperial supremacy (and neoliberalism) is as dystopic as it gets. And this only reveals the true nature of the U.S. regardless of which president is in charge.

No matter how morally high-sounding a certain president is (usually Democrats), and how liberal they might seem, they have to act in conformity with the hegemonic interests of the ruling/oligarchical elite few who amass all the super profits in the world to the irredeemable detriment of the masses.

With each American president, the global status quo remains intact. As we see today, imperialist proxy wars have intensified and show zero signs of abating. Obama continued where Bush left. And Biden did likewise. The wars in Yemen, Syria, Ukraine, and the perennial conflicts in Libya, the Sahel, Palestine, etc are shameful attestations to this sad and regrettable material reality.

Barack Obama committed unspeakable, horrendous, and morbidly terrifying atrocities at an unprecedented scale. And, notwithstanding this truism, his legacy is still praised as a purported “champion of democracy” and “individual liberties”. It was Obama who orchestrated, with the conventional imperialistic arrogance and intransigence of white supremacist domination, the ongoing chaos in Libya. For it was Obama who commanded the inhuman might of NATO forces to raid, bomb, and pillage Libya — with the final polishing act: the assassination of Muammar Gaddafi.

Corporate media has never, and this is not an understatement, critically addressed the perpetuation of America’s death-laden metaphysical (the Manifest Destiny) belief in imposing foreign military intervention in smaller countries perceived to have gone against the whims and dictates of Western hegemony.

It was Obama who continuously, as if in a war-like video game, rained bombs on women and children in Syria and Yemen. The most ever in the region. It was Obama who stamped the continuous presence of the American military (which is literally a death machine) in Iraq and Afghanistan. He never extended an arm of reconciliation with Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, and Zimbabwe.

During his presidency, Barack Obama “approved the use of 563 drone strikes that killed approximately 3,797 people”. He “authorized 54 drone strikes alone in Pakistan during his first year in office”, and in the following year he “led 128 CIA drone strikes in Pakistan that killed at least 89 civilians”.

Harvard Political Review writes, “The drone operations extended to Somalia and Yemen in 2010 and 2011, resulting in more destructive results. Under the belief they were targeting al-Qaida, President Obama’s first strike on Yemen killed 55 people including 21 children, 10 of which were under the age of five. Additionally, 12 women, five of them pregnant, were also among those who were murdered in this strike.”

In 2010, Obama sought the approval of Congress to increase military spending in Iraq and Afghanistan to $160 billion; and at that time he said that he was adding “30,000 more U.S. troops to the Afghan war effort to join the 68,000 already fighting a resurgent Taliban”.

The only advantage that Obama got, which made him enact these horrific acts without much opposition from Americans and the rest of the world, was his “good moral standing” — largely enabled by the white supremacist corporate media. Obama was (and still is) portrayed as a “deeply moral man” who “engages in serious and conscientious deliberations” before making decisions. Decisions that resulted in the murder of thousands of innocent lives in far-away lands.

He actively perpetuated the white supremacist agenda of American imperialism. In an act of twisted irony, Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. But here was a man who continued to funnel unrelenting support to the apartheid state of Israel; effectively dehumanizing the Palestinian peoples and frustrating their struggle for liberation.

Obama is not remorseful over his atrocities against humanity. His drone strikes make him fit snugly in the category of a war criminal who must be punished for flagrantly and incessantly violating international humanitarian law — which he paradoxically claimed to uphold; that when he wanted to “save” these civilians from the “terrorists”, the “machinery he commanded” made him to “end up killing people”. These are the words of a white supremacist, a war criminal who must face justice. There is nothing much to celebrate about the legacy of Barack Obama.

So, when we hear Obama talking about human rights to Modi, it's hard not to chuckle. It's like a wolf teaching a lamb about vegetarianism. The irony is almost too much to bear. But then again, this is the same man who was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize while authorizing drone strikes that killed thousands.

In the grand scheme of things, Obama's presidency was just another chapter in the long history of American imperialism and white supremacy. His crimes, while horrific, are not unique. They are part of a larger pattern of oppression and exploitation that has been perpetuated by every American president, regardless of their party affiliation or personal beliefs.

So, let's not be fooled by the charming facade and the eloquent speeches. Let's remember the drone strikes, the wars, and the countless lives lost. Let's remember the true legacy of Barack Obama.

Obama administration warmed up to Muslim brotherhood, oversaw the rise of ISIS

During the illustrious reign of Barack Obama, the US government decided to get all cozy with the radical Islamist group, the 'Muslim Brotherhood' in Egypt, during the Arab Spring. This was a radical departure from the approach of previous US administrations, but hey, who needs consistency when you're making history, right?

According to author Hany Ghoraba, Obama was under the impression that he could separate the terror outfit 'Al-Qaeda' and the Muslim Brotherhood. "Empowering the Muslim Brotherhood would, according to Obama, weaken Al-Qaeda," Ghoraba noted. A decision that could be considered one of the most severe cases of political naiveté in modern times, but let's not be too harsh, it's not like he was the President of the United States or anything.

"The core fault of the Obama administration was its adoption of a false rhetoric, presented for years by Islamist activists and later liberal Western politicians and pundits, that there is a distinction between the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaeda," Ghoraba pointed out. But who needs to listen to experts when you can just make things up as you go along?

The Arab Spring led to significant political changes in several countries, including the ousting of long-standing autocratic leaders. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, emerged as a major political force. And in 2011, the Obama administration thought it was a brilliant idea to engage with the Muslim Brotherhood-led government, overlooking its radical Islamism, dangerous ideology, and mistreatment of religious minorities. But hey, who needs to worry about minor details like human rights abuses when you're trying to make friends?

When protests erupted against the government in Egypt, the Obama administration quickly did a 180 and called for the removal of the Muslim Brotherhood-backed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi. Documents now reveal that the US government funded anti-Morsi activities. Because nothing says "we support democracy" like secretly funding the opposition.

The tenure of Barack Obama was also marked by the rise of the dreaded terrorist organization, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria aka ISIS. One of the major contributing factors was the withdrawal of US troops, failed negotiations with the Iraqi government, and lack of residual US military presence in the country. The security vacuum left in Iraq gave opportunities for radical Islamist groups to expand. But who could have predicted that?

Conclusion

In conclusion, Barack Obama has been at the helm of building secret drone bases in the Middle East and Africa and increasing the deployment of warships and troops in the Western Pacific and Eastern Europe. He has been accused by his first three Defense Secretaries at the Pentagon of micro-managing the military from the White House. Through the killing of dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Obama ensured that Libya, an oil-rich nation, plunged into complete chaos. Later, Libya became a magnet for terrorist groups. But hey, at least he got a Nobel Peace Prize out of it, right?

At the time of PM Modi's visit to the US on the invite of the incumbent President Joe Biden, Barack Obama is pontificating the Modi administration about human rights and peddling the distorted narrative of 'Muslims being in danger in India.' Because nothing says "I respect your sovereignty" like lecturing another country's leader on how to run their country.