The final State of the Union address

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday gave his last State of the Union speech to Congress before leaving office next year speaking about his vision for the country’s social and economic future.

The speech addressed to the country as well as to the rest of the world after a 7-year stint by a president who assumed power with many aspirations and spoke about the ‘change’ needed, is something to be analysed. His solid conviction in the capability of the US to face both internal and external challenges along with the transformation achieved in America’s social and economic sectors, the ways to ‘keep the country safe and lead the world without becoming its policeman’, hints about the internal political changes in the US, the country’s intervention in the world political consensus, the rigorous stance against terrorism and global warming and also the attempts to convince his statements were reflected in his speech. America’s politics lie deep in the already established lobbying rather than in public will. Whoever governs the US, it’s usually the interests of weapon dealers and business giants that become the country’s political stance. Politically, the nation hasn’t been ever able to free itself from the clutches of the Israel lobby. Obama’s government was no different from others in the case of foreign policies that are more in the interests of Israel rather than that of the US. Despite an accurate analysis and presenting it well before the audience, Obama’s stint as president proves that he could only be part of a pre-set system and not a ‘rectifying power’ even if he had wanted. That’s the reason why he failed to be honest as Jimmy Carter who wasn’t even the president, in West Asian politics.

Obama also expressed anxiety over West Asia continuing to be unstable and worn-torn. He also warned mainly of Afghanistan and Pakistan becoming a solid hub of new terrorist outfits. The statements of the president are absolutely right. But would America be able to wipe its hands clean off the blood stains of the war-torn regions inflicted with racial divides which were once a paradise of diversity and peaceful co-existence? Pakistan has been America’s ally for more than half a decade. Afghanistan and West Asia have been under the control of the US for decades. Despite these facts, why does terrorism grow and spread in these regions and around? If the promise of uprooting the Islamic State was sincere, America should be willing to honestly face these questions and rectify its mistakes.

Obama specifically makes clear that the country also faces the consequences of the unfeasible foreign policy internally as well. His words reflect the displeasure in the US public support for Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim campaign and also show empathy towards the Muslims. He urged for simplifying the immigration policies. But, Obama’s tenure would be labeled as a period during which the largest number of people were denied permission for entry. However, he was silent over the discriminations faced by the Afro-Latin societies and the attempts to suppress their protests. Last year, 986 people mostly black were killed by the US police force alone. Isn’t that unusual element discernible to the US government? Attorney general Loretta Lynch says that the federal government should not require police to report the number of people killed by them. The superiority complex supposedly rampant among the people and the elite class akin to believing that the US President should be a white, born in America is what prompts Trump to make such racial statements. The search for the reason why Obama’s determination to free the nation from Gun Culture went in vain, would end in cultural and racial consciousness and the outcry of the suppressed to resist it. Even though 68 percent of those who participated in a CNN survey about Obama’s address opined that his approach would lead the US on to the right track, many shared the criticisms that the productiveness and dedication highlighted in the speech lacked in his approach.