Barack Obama was the son of Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Sr. His father was from Kenya and his mother was from Kansas. He lived in Indonesia with his mother and stepfather from age six to ten. His mother sent him to Hawaii to get a better education because she felt the Catholic and Muslim schools in Indonesia were not enough. His mother did not go back with him to Hawaii with him, instead, he stayed with her parents. He attended Punahou School from the fifth grade until he graduated. After High School, he applied to go to college in Los Angeles California at Occidental college. He then went to the University of Columbia. He majored in political science and graduated in the year 1983. Obama decided to stay in New York for a year afterward. He then began working as a community organizer. His job was to organize a Developing Communities Project funded by the church. After finishing his degree and the year in New York he applied to Harvard Law School. There he became the president of Harvard law review from 1990 to 1991. Obama was a liberal but he persuaded people to believe he would treat their views fairly. He was the first African American president of the law review. He grew very popular from social media. Random House wrote a book about his race relations. After his first year at Harvard, he took a summer internship in Chicago. There is where he met Michelle Robinson, in 1992 they got married. The two then settled down and had to daughters. His first Political Campaign was the year 1996 to become the Chicago state senator. In 2004 Obama ran for the state senate. He did not agree with president George W Bush's decision to start a war with Iraq to get rid of the dictatorship. He then went on to run for the state senate. He beat Alan Keyes another black man by 70 percent.
Foreign Policy Iraq and Afghanistan
Obama did many things with foreign countries. Many of his policies were successful. Once taking office Obama was handed down two wars. One in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. A goal of Obama's was to bring American troops back to America. As he believed starting the war in Iraq was unneeded in the first place. Obama sent an additional 21,000 troops to Afghanistan to try and defeat the Taliban. In June of 2009, Obama appointed General Stanley McChrystal as the new general in Afghanistan. The General requested 40,000 more troops to teach the Afghans to fight the Taliban themselves. Obama later gave a speech on December first where he approved the small surge. He then sent 33,000 more troops to Afghanistan with the promise of them slowly coming back to America in July of 2011. On May 2nd of 2011, American Navy SEALS killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda. He sent drones and special forces to a “secret war” against people who are suspected to be terrorists. Even though troops began to leave Afghanistan. The White House joined NATO which is the Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization. By joining they began to help the Libyan rebels succeed from the dictator Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi. Obama did not have to tell congress he was sending troops to help the rebels. The President and his security wanted to create a new way to approach war. They did not want to send mass troops to go fight wars. Instead, he wanted to rely on multinational action and air forces to get the job done. In Libya they heavily relied on bombing to overthrow Qaddafi.
Death Of Osama Bin Laden
On May 2, 2011 the leader of al Qaeda Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces in Pakistan while he was hiding out. He was the person behind the 9/11 attacks. The US had been trying to hunt him down for almost ten years. At around 1 a.m. President Obama was in Washington watching the raid happen through footage shot by a drone. A U.S. helicopter crashed into a compound in Abbottabad where bin Laden was hiding. 23 Navy SEALs ran into the hideout. The raid took about forty minutes. Osama and one of his sons were killed by American gunfire and so were five others. No Americans were injured in the raid. Once bin Laden was killed he was flown to Afghanistan. After he was identified he was taken and buried in the Arabian sea, a location we still do not know today. After bin Laden was dead Obama gave the news that “Justice has been done” People cheered and crowds gathered in Times Square, ground zero, and the white house to celebrate the death of the al Qaeda leader. Based on files and other evidence itwas found that bin Laden had been planning to assassinate President Obama. While carrying out other attacks on the anniversary of 9/11. It was supposed to be one of the biggest attacks terrorists against America since 9/11. The C.I.A found where bin Laden had been hiding in 2010. Where he was had tall security walls and was located in a residential area. Many people believed that the Pakistanian authorities worked with bin Laden and kept him hidden for so long.
Syria and ISIS
During his second term he was determined to change the war strategies of the U.S. He felt the war tactics were fatiguing and needed changing. Democrats and Republicans were hesitant towards having more commitments in the Middle East. Even though Bashar al-Assad crossed the line by using chemical weapons against citizens, the president decided last minute not to send missiles to Syria. He did this because of how hesitant the Democrats and Republicans were toward it. Obama then went to congress about his late decision which they had little to no interest in what he had to say. A couple of days later Vladimir Putin suggested that the U.S. try to convince Syria to stop using chemical weapons, Obama took his suggestion and used it. In the fall of 2014 the people of ISIS were formerly part of al Qaeda. ISIS then took advantage of the civil war in Syria and gained territory from Syria. They also took land in Iraq because of the lack of power in their government. In the beginning, they did not know how dangerous ISIS really was to the U.S. and the people in Syria and Iraq. Obama did not feel that the ISIS fighters were very skilled. When ISIS released videos of them beheading two journalists from America it showed how much of a threat they really were to the American people. Two weeks after the videos Obama took action and gave a September 10th speech that stated that he sent missiles to Syria. Obama did not want the war against ISIS to be like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He did not want American troops fighting on a foreign country's soil. He instead wanted to use missiles but by 2016 there were over 5,00 troops in Syria helping fight ISIS. The President did not listen to the public when they wanted him to strike back at ISIS
Iran Deal
On January 16, 2016 President Barack Obama gave a speech about the deal between the US and Iran. In this speech, he spoke about how much uranium Iran had. They had an increasing stockpile of enriched uranium, this stockpile held enough uranium to create about ten nuclear bombs. Most has been removed from Iran, so they are incapable of making even one. The concrete then filled the core reactor so it could never be used again. Before no one knew the capability of Iran to build a nuclear weapon. Now international inspectors are now in Iran inspecting all of what they have for 24 hours a day 365 days of a year to make sure they never have the ability to create nuclear weapons again. Before this deal Iran could create a bomb in two to three months, with this deal it will take them close to a year to gather all materials. Now having inspectors in Iran 24/7 we will know if they ever have any intent in creating a bomb again. Now after the inspectors and the US have been monitoring and controlling the creation of nuclear weapons, the US has finally gave them access to their money that has been frozen. Also through this deal, American sailors and other captives of the Iranian government were released back to America. The US released six Iranian Americans and one Iranian who were under arrest but never committed of any crimes of violence or were considered a terrorist. Lastly, Iran was paid back some of the money that was frozen plus interest though it was much less than Iran wanted. This deal does not make the US and Iran the same. The US is still opposed to their behavior toward Israel and partners of the US in the Gulf, and their support toward Syria and Yemen. In conclusion, the US sanctions on Iran because of its support for terrorism and their human rights violations.
Domestic Policy
When Obama went into the office the unemployment rate was high at 10% and the economy was no longer growing. Obama came $700 billion dollars to TARP (Travel Asset Relief Program) this program gave money to banks all across America to keep them going. He also gave $60 billion of the funds to GM and Chrysler even though George W Bush had already given them $20 billion to keep them from going bankrupt. Though the government got more than $600 billion back from GM Chrysler and all of the banks. People felt that the money from TARP was a copout for all the major banks. The president built the economy stronger with all of his domestic policies and even prevented another Great Depression. He created 11.3 million jobs and lowered the unemployment rate to lower than 5%. Inflation and interest rates were low and major stock industries more than doubled. The economic recovery grew faster than ever before, though it was never greater than 2%. Inflation was growing much slower than the economic recovery which saved the US from a crisis. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was the first major idea he presented to congress. This act would use $800 billion to keep workers from being laid off or to reduce unemployment. One-third of this money cut middle-class taxes another went to highways and bridges. This act did not pass because no republican voted for it.
Obamacare
Obama wanted to do more as a president than take care of the economic problems. He wanted to help the common people because he and his wife were once part of the middle class in Chicago. This is when he made the health care reform also known as Obamacare. Obamacare was passed on March 23, 2010. There are three parts to Obamacare. The first was to make sure all Americans could receive health care. Secondly, it expanded Medicaid. Third was federal subsidies so that everyone can afford healthcare which is now required. Obamacare gave 20 million Americans health insurance. The result of Obamacare is that never in American history have so many Americans had health insurance. Under Obamacare preventive care is free and women receive mammograms at no cost. Doctors have also benefited from this by delivering healthy babies and people that were in the hospital did not have to be readmitted. Obamacare was very controversial. Even after it was passed republicans began to vote on the repeal of the act. It also made business owners with 50 or more employees provide health insurance to at least 95% of their employees. It does not have to be a lot but just a little bit. After the act was approved 54% of Americans did not agree with it. The cons of Obamacare was that the tax rate went up, people that did not get insurance were taxed by the ACA, instead of paying for coverage people paid the tax, and Pharmaceutical companies had to pay more. Pros were that it slowed the rate of healthcare costs, children could stay on their parent's health insurance, and it covered pre-existing conditions. Obamacare benefited the middle class the most by receiving tax credits and by expanding Medicaid to 138%. For most Obamacare was great but three to five million people lost their company-based health insurance because of it. The tax rate increased from 1.45% to 2.35%.
Legacy
After leaving office many people did not know what Obama's legacy would be. People argued that his legacy would not be very big and would slowly fade away with time. Others felt his legacy would last forever. One thing that everyone will remember was that he was the first ever black president. He will also be remembered for Obamacare and the stability of his administration. Obama grew up not having a lot of money. So he helped the middle class a lot with Obama care. He gave healthcare to those who could not afford it without Obamacare. In his second term his approval polls increased but towards the last few months rested at around 60%. He and President Ronald Regan were two of the highest percentages of people believing they were the greatest president since world war two. Reagan had 30% of voters and Obama was close behind with 29%. After a survey was done he was ranked 12th out of all presidents since Washington. The scholars that ranked him believed his overall performance as chief executive was good for America overall.
Conclusion
Barack Obama served two terms as the President of the United States. One thing he will always be remembered for will be making history for being the very first African-American elected for the office of the United States Presidency. He did many things that helped the US with foreign countries and took care of one of the biggest threats to America, in the location and death of Osama bin Laden. He did a great thing for the middle class and low income with Obamacare and in growing the economy and lowering the unemployment rate in America. When he left office in 2017 he left behind very strong economy. President Obama’s legacy will never be erased due to the many things he did for our great nation. America was proud at having him for our President, he taught us many things but one thing I think for sure he taught us most is too look out for your fellow Americans, dont judge others by the color of their skin or if they have a disadvantage from the rest of society. We are all proud, honorable, patriotic and American, no matter what our economic or social standing happens to be. President Obama made patriotism something we all wanted to show. He brought America together more than tearing it apart. He made us proud of who we chose to be our United States President, from 2009-2017.
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