His solution seems to be to "decolonise" the private sector by bringing it under the heavy hand of government control. Obama even refuses banks that have received federal bailouts the chance to repay them. He says that first they have to pass a "stress test". How odd to require a debtor to pass a test before he can give you your money back. Evidently, Obama wants these banks to keep the federal money because with it comes federal control.

Obama's environmental policies seem designed to enrich the previously colonised countries and impose the cost on the neocolonial West. In his speeches to the United Nations and elsewhere, Obama calls for sharp restrictions on the use of oil, carbon and other resources by the Western developed nations. But he seeks no equivalent restrictions on the Third World. On the contrary, the Obama administration has proposed massive transfers of wealth from the West to the Third World for the purpose of enabling the poor countries to develop new sources of energy. 

In the foreign policy arena, Obama seems to view Iraq and Afghanistan not as venues for a "war on terror". Indeed, he has virtually banned the term. Rather, Obama appears to view America's presence in those two countries as the result of wars of colonial occupation. He is determined to withdraw American troops no matter what happens in the aftermath. In Iraq, Obama opposed the "surge" that proved crucial in turning the tide against the insurgency. Iraq remains unstable, but it would be far worse had there been no surge. Obama has already begun a pullout.

He has also announced American withdrawal from Afghanistan starting in 12 months. Recently, the New York Times reported that the Karzai government in Afghanistan has been conducting secret talks with the Taliban. Initially, this appeared to be a regrettable case of untrustworthy allies. When I first read the headline, I thought: "It seems like we can't trust these Afghans. Just when our back is turned they start making deals with the enemy." But a few days later the NYT reported that the Obama administration had been orchestrating the secret negotiations. It is Obama who is trying to cut a deal with the Taliban. Once again, it appears as if Obama's primary objective is to end what he perceives to be a colonial occupation. Whether Karzai rules, or the Taliban rule, or some combination of the two, seems to be a secondary consideration for him.

Now consider the lethargy with which Obama collects international signatures to discourage Iran from building a nuclear bomb. Let's acknowledge that it's not easy to deter the mullahs from doing something that they very much want to do. Still, it seems that America should at least pursue policies that have a reasonable prospect of stopping the Iranian bomb. If not, then at least admit that Iran is going to get the bomb and take measures designed to prevent that bomb from posing a lethal threat to Israel or the West. Instead, Obama seems content to pursue a series of symbolic measures, including symbolic sanctions that have virtually no chance of convincing the mullahs to give up their nuclear ambitions.

Obama's lethargy in blocking Iran's nuclear project contrasts sharply with his effectiveness in reducing America's nuclear arsenal. At a recent summit, Obama announced that America and Russia would both be sharply cutting their nuclear stockpiles. The Russian stockpile is mostly decayed, so the net effect is severely to scale back the American arsenal. Obama's rhetoric was suitably lofty: this was all part of his dream to move us closer to a world free of nuclear weapons. Still, the cynic may be forgiven for noting that the only nuclear arsenal under Obama's control was that of the US, so the only way he could move us closer to a nuclear-free world was to slash his own country's stockpile.