It is worth noting that sometimes those outside our country see things here more clearly than many Americans. I was struck by this idea when I read a tweet from Gary Kasparov, the former world chess champion who is now a pro-democracy activist in Russia. Here is Kasparov's short distillation of president Obama's foreign policy:
The Obama Doctrine: "Do as little as necessary to appear to be doing something without actually committing to a cause or course of action."
Kasparov really hits the nail on the head. When Russia invaded Crimea, Obama's response was to impose sanctions that did nothing. A few high ranking Russian officials had their American assets frozen after they were given about a two week period to first move them elsewhere. It was a joke, but it allowed Obama to look sternly into the cameras and talk about American sanctions on Russia when, in reality, there were none. Crimea has stayed Russian and there is no chance of that situation changing.
When ISIS began moving into Iraq, Obama did nothing. When ISIS took the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah and their roughly 1 million inhabitants, Obama called them "jayvee terrorists" and did nothing. When ISIS began months later to take more territory across Iraq to the point that it controlled nearly half the country, Obama demanded that the Baghdad government change its composition before America could act to help stop ISIS. During all this time, it was clear who ISIS was; there were murders and more murders of thousands in Iraq. ISIS had no doubt what to do with opponents: it killed all of them it could find. Only once ISIS began beheading American captives did Obama become forced to act. Even since then, Obama has done as little as possible in order to appear to be taking action. American air power has been deployed against ISIS on many occasions during the last three months. Even so, however, the number of air attacks against ISIS in Iraq since August is less than the number of attacks by American planes on an average day during the Gulf War or the invasion of Iraq in 2002. It is like trying to kill a rhinoceros with a flyswatter.
Kasparov did not include domestic policy, but there too, one finds a similar Obama Doctrine. Think what Obama has done on the economy. We have faced stagnation for years, but Obama has not done anything. Think about just the last two years. Obama has not even had a program to grow the economy; not even a proposal. Instead, we got nonsense like the need for universal pre-K education and raising the minimum wage as an "economic program". That allowed Obama to say that he had a program when he really had not even made a proposal and had certainly done NOTHING.
The Obama Doctrine: "Do as little as necessary to appear to be doing something without actually committing to a cause or course of action."
Kasparov really hits the nail on the head. When Russia invaded Crimea, Obama's response was to impose sanctions that did nothing. A few high ranking Russian officials had their American assets frozen after they were given about a two week period to first move them elsewhere. It was a joke, but it allowed Obama to look sternly into the cameras and talk about American sanctions on Russia when, in reality, there were none. Crimea has stayed Russian and there is no chance of that situation changing.
When ISIS began moving into Iraq, Obama did nothing. When ISIS took the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah and their roughly 1 million inhabitants, Obama called them "jayvee terrorists" and did nothing. When ISIS began months later to take more territory across Iraq to the point that it controlled nearly half the country, Obama demanded that the Baghdad government change its composition before America could act to help stop ISIS. During all this time, it was clear who ISIS was; there were murders and more murders of thousands in Iraq. ISIS had no doubt what to do with opponents: it killed all of them it could find. Only once ISIS began beheading American captives did Obama become forced to act. Even since then, Obama has done as little as possible in order to appear to be taking action. American air power has been deployed against ISIS on many occasions during the last three months. Even so, however, the number of air attacks against ISIS in Iraq since August is less than the number of attacks by American planes on an average day during the Gulf War or the invasion of Iraq in 2002. It is like trying to kill a rhinoceros with a flyswatter.
Kasparov did not include domestic policy, but there too, one finds a similar Obama Doctrine. Think what Obama has done on the economy. We have faced stagnation for years, but Obama has not done anything. Think about just the last two years. Obama has not even had a program to grow the economy; not even a proposal. Instead, we got nonsense like the need for universal pre-K education and raising the minimum wage as an "economic program". That allowed Obama to say that he had a program when he really had not even made a proposal and had certainly done NOTHING.
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