I think only US public was actually expecting anything from Obama while he was in White House. To anyone from the outside it was obvious there will be no change of course.

This short book contains one article related to the Osama bin Laden's killing and three articles on escalating situation in Syria.

When it comes to Osama bin Laden's killing it is one of those cases when not so bright people decide to take the credit forcefully. Instead of just admitting that attack took place, Obama's administration decided to get implicated into fascinating web of lies and thus caused serious issues for its ally. Trying to portray the action as constant under fire event (while it seems it was not even close to that) destroyed the good relations in the very difficult part of the world.

On the other hand situation in Syria demonstrates rather schizophrenic nature of US foreign policy. Unable to handle Turkey (information about which are very alarming to say the least especialy related to gas attacks) US decided to declare Syria enemy state and started funneling weapons and mercenaries (Uighur role here is rather disturbing) from Mad Max Lybia to Syria. Turkey played the role of the main route for weapon and mercenaries into Syria and everything went well until Russia came in and complicated the situation.

Turkey and its allies in Syria (all rather radical militias) tried to provoke Lybia-like NATO Intervention using gas attacks as a reason. Fortunately, although all NATO allies were more than ready to repeat Lybia, attack and invasion never took place. But it escalated things and brought West into ever increasing chance of direct confrontation with Russia.

US JCS decided to de-escalate the situation by providing the information through back channels to Assad and Russians but CIA (for some reason, still not clear to me, utterly bent on destroying Syria) and Obama's administration managed to dismantle the uncontrollable generals. Result - current situation.

Very interesting set of articles that sheds some light on Syria events and shows how short term actions to show the presidency in good light (similar to Clinton's bombings after every affair) cause long term horror show in affected areas.

Highly recommended. ( )

This is a slim book of controversy with the matter explained in the title. Hersh holds that the biggest foreign policy errors of the Obama White House were the actual killing of Osama, rather than the "Zero Dark Thirty" version, and the decision to oust the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad while simultaneously combating Daesh/Isil in Iraq. Hersh believes this was simply too many cats to herd at one time, and that the necessary arrangements made to hand over bin Laden involved the Obama White House in relationships with Pakistan and Turkey that led to the current Syrian muddle. step by step we are given information about how the Russians, by backing Assad, have greatly enhanced their standing in the Eastern Mediterranean, and keep Islamic Terrorists from targeting Inner Asia rather than Iraq. His book naturally gives rise to questions regarding the Donald Trump's pro-Russian, anti-terrorist stance, and the role of Turkey, anti-ISIL, anti-Kurd and interested in reviving their status in former Ottoman territories.
If you can keep the various USA security agencies clear , especially in their abbreviation forms, this is an interesting window into the events of 2015 -16. ( )