Explaining the Obama doctrine

"crudely put, useless conflicts weaken necessary conflicts."

Perhaps the biggest tests of this are Iran and Russia, however. Obama has signaled that he wants to patch up (or "overload," I suppose I should say with a hint of snark) relations with Russia. But is Russia a first- or second-order issue? And how does this differ from Presidents Carter or Bush II, who also wanted to improve relations with Russia, but ended up being unable to do so?

Iran is the other big question, of course. Obama clearly wants to change course on Iran policy, but Iran is clearly a first-order issue at the moment.

I'd like to see more of your thoughts on this, especially given a conversation I had last night in which my take was that the administration is currently focusing on certain high-profile (which is to say not necessarily strategic) relationships without thinking about the implications of actions on those fronts. Honestly, it looks like a train wreck of well meaning. Let's hope that doesn't constitute a doctrine.

The Obama Doctrine, unlike other doctrines, will not be marked by one defining moment or feature; Roosevelt's New Deal program or George Bush's policy of pre-emption summed up the strategies of the architects. President Obama has managed to diffuse the hype around his decisions and speeches, his political style makes every decision appear as a simple response to the demand of times. From Cuba to Iran, from N.Korea to Pakistan, from stem cell research to executive bonuses, President Obama has made historic decisions which cannot be generalized under the rubic of a single doctrine. He has extended goodwill gestures towards Iran, his keyman for AFPAK richard Holbrooke continues to remain critical of Pakistan; even though Iran was invited to the Afghanistan conference, President Obama did not agree to attend the U.N. Racism Summit. President Obama is not not being overtly friendly or critical of any nation.
Doctrines have the inherient tendency to become dogmatic; President Obama seems to realized this fact and hence is keeping all his options open. His statement that the AFPAK strategy will be reviewed if outcomes are not satisfactory reflects his anti-doctorinal approach. Hopefully, Obama's flexibility will work.

foreign policy is about the clash of vested interests - the impact of 'goodwill' on such is tangential at best - unless of course it is a symptom of a decline in relative power - our future status viz China, whether cooperative or antagonistic, will not be decided because Obama built up goodwill in the 'world community' but may be decided because the desire for such pushes our policies in certain directions leading China to perceive us as either weak or strong accordingly - if foreign policy is all about a clash of vested interests then power matters, strength matters - goodwill is a mere sideshow. So far Obama, from his meaningless if not dangerously naive rhetoric concerning a nuclear free world to 'the handshake', appears to prefer the sideshow.

This is from a prediction I made on my blog on 05 November 2008:

The coming domestic policy:

Obama and his Democrat majority will increase taxes and spending. They will carry out their threat to take money from taxpayers and give money to those who do not pay taxes, let alone work. The trillion dollars he plans on spending will be a drop in the bucket before he’s through.
It won’t take long before the economy collapses completely.

Since the liberals are so enthusiastic about ’spreading the wealth’, there’s an abundance of filthy rich Democrat politicians, supporters, contributors, entertainers, and moguls like George Soros, who can afford to do just that.
If they’re going to penalize people who earned the American dream, and give to those who have not, they’d better start forking over the dough. Republicans aren’t the only ones who supposedly ‘got rich off the backs of the poor’.

I live in Lorain, a town about 30 miles west of Cleveland. The entire region of NE Ohio has been a democratic cesspool for decades, and the union hacks just don’t understand why the Steel Mill and the Ford Plant are virtual ghost towns. It’s...depressing to see how dilapidated Lorain has become. They really think that Mr. Hopey Changytude will rob the ‘evil, oppressive, rich, white’ corporations, and come through the neighborhood with a sack full of money like a ghetto Santa Claus.

I’m a retired U.S. Soldier. I AM Joe the Plumber. I’m sick to death of moonbats flinging the race card because they’ve run out of excuses for lazy, unmotivated, professional welfare recipients who blame everything on their skin color.

....The trouble is there’s a whole culture in this country that is used to sucking off of the public teat. Why work or become self-reliant at all? The lower class, a longtime liberal contingent, is saturated with the idiotic idea that Democrats will take care of them from cradle to grave. There are people in this country who are stupid beyond words and keep re-electing human garbage like Ted Kennedy, Barney Frank, John Murtha, Dennis Kucinich, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Dick Durbin, John Conyers, and Charles Rangel. They’re the same ones who promise salvation for the masses, but never deliver.

....They’re going to get a rude awakening when they realize the Obamessiah can’t walk on water, pay their mortgages, buy their gas, or for spring for their next bottle of Henessy.

The outlook on national security:

America’s national security just took a big hit. Illegal aliens and terrorist cells that have already been crossing the border because there’s no real obstacle, now have an open invitation. Expect another attack on this country by terrorists who now have that ‘change they can believe in’.
FISA will be null and void, law enforcement and the FBI will face severe restrictions on monitoring, arrest, and prosecution of terrorist cells and supporters living in the U.S.

The coming foreign policy:

Our war against Islamofacism will likely suffer, if not grind to a halt. American troops who fought so valiantly in the region of the world that breeds the terrorists who attacked this country, will now be forbidden to do what it takes to accomplish the mission and prosecuted for doing so.

The Eurotrash, North Korea, China, Venezuela, and Islamic comrades (Iran, in particular) are rejoicing in this latest tragicomic episode in American politics. We are now saddled with a corrupt, socialist, terrorist cavorting, narcissistic charlatan, who suits their agenda. Obamabots placed all of their faith and adoration into an empty suit with serious defects.

Obama will kowtow to all of the world’s malefactors, fulfilling his promise to ‘negotiate without pre-conditions’. To all the asshats who foolishly believe that being a pliant doormat will somehow make the United States a more “moral, respected, endearing, popular, positive role model”, brace yourselves. It will only serve to encourage hostile nations, Islamic ones in particular, to take advantage of a deteriorated American political and economic system, rife with Democratic milksops.
This, of course, is supposed to improve our ‘world image’. If you think Clinton’s non-response to the numerous terrorist attacks on his watch gave al Qaeda the green light, Obama will be in the....control tower giving the okay for take off.

Just about all of that has come to fruition, and it hasn't even been 100 days, yet.

I think its worth mentioning that Chuck Todd asked Obama that very question on Sunday. While the President said that he would leave it up to Todd to write the book on "Obamaism", he did spell out a few of the priorities and principles that he uses as a guide. A transcript of his response is here. And I think Dan is pretty dead on with his characterization. It perfectly describes his approach to Iraq and Afghanistan, of course, and does a good job of explaining his approach in other areas as well.

In theory Obama is supposed to provide some kind of leadership. But the nation is in a bad state, the pie we're going to split up is shrinking. So everybody who's currently getting a big slice will be trying to make sure their slice doesn't shrink too much.

And every new initiative is an invitation for their slices to shrink, unless they are directly involved with it.

So we can expect a wave of conservatism, big opposition to each new thing along with tepid support.

So if Obama actually wants to do something, it makes sense for him to leave it unclear what he'll do until just before he does it -- so the opposition won't have as much time to solidify.

On the assumption that Obama has no particular interest in fulfilling his campaign promises, I have no idea what if anything he'll do. The more predictable he is, the worse he's doing.