Dear Carey,
thank you very much for your article.
The same thing that you observe in the US is also true for Europe I guess. At least for Germany (this is where I live). Obama still has a very high reputation over here and people do not at all associate him with violence, assassinations and war .
He managed to stage one of the biggest media stunts of all times: coming across as the peaceful messiah and at the same time terrorizing countries with an illegal drone warfare program.
As a German resident, my country is part of this monstrous MIC war game too, since the military base Ramstein is located in Germany. As whistleblower Brandon Bryant explained, most signals to control drones in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria etc. run through Ramstein Air Base.
German peace activists have been actively campaigning against the air base for years, but our government has long denied any knowledge about the drone program, which of course was a lie.
Peace movements in Germany have been suffering badly in the last years, they are being relived again, but they are far from being as widespread as they used to be e.g. in the 80s. What peace movements need is probably an international approach. Since warfare has become such a global plague, it needs a global answer.
In case you are interested in the German peace movement's campaign against the US Air Base in Ramstein, please check out: https://www.ramstein-kampagne.eu
I'd be happy to get into further contact with you, maybe we could set up some form of transatlantic peace alliance <3