Thoughts of Obama From Bama

Week 114: "The Obama Doctrine"

“Take for example when you go to the movies these days, you know.
They try to sell you this jumbo drink, 8 extra ounces of watered
down cherry coke for an extra 25 cents. I don't want it.
I don't want that much organization in my life.
I don't want other people thinking for me.
I want my junior mints. Where did the junior mints go in the
movies? I don't want a 12 lb. nestles crunch for 25 dollars. I
want junior mints.

We need more fruitcakes in this world and less bakers!

Fruitcakes in the kitchen
Fruitcakes on the bus
Struttin naked through the crosswalk
In the middle of the week
Half-baked cookies in the oven
Half-baked people on the bus
There's a little bit of fruitcake left in everyone of us”
Fruitcakes, Jimmy Buffett

Everybody needs a Doctrine to live by. An expression of one’s core values, philosophy, priorities that shape our decisions, actions and conduct.

Mr. Buffett’s doctrine of it’s always 5:00 somewhere; getting wasted away in Margarittaville again; that one particular harbor; a white sports coat and a pink oyster crustacean; and celebrating that little piece of fruitcake securely tucked away in each and every one of us has secured his position as the ultimate thought leader in modern day musical, poetic and philosophical escapism. We also seem to expect our Presidents to formulate and articulate their own personal doctrine with military strategy and foreign policy being of particular interest.

Following are a few examples:
• THE MONROE DOCTRINE proclaimed the United States' opinion that European powers should no longer colonize the Americas or interfere with the affairs of sovereign nations located in the Americas
• TEDDY ROOSEVELT'S DOCTRINE "speaking softly but carrying a big stick”
• TRUMAN DOCTRINE, containment of the Soviet Union at all cost
• EISENHOWER DOCTRINE, "to secure and protect the territorial integrity and political independence of such nations, requesting such aid against overt armed aggression from any nation controlled by international communism."
• THE KENNEDY DOCTRINE voiced support for the containment of Communism and the reversal of Communist progress in the Western Hemisphere.
• THE JOHNSON DOCTRINE declared that domestic revolution in the Western Hemisphere would no longer be a local matter when "the object is the establishment of a Communist dictatorship”
• THE NIXON DOCTRINE stated that the United States henceforth expected its allies to assume primary responsibility for their own military defense. This was the start of the "Vietnamization" of the Vietnam War
• THE CARTER DOCTRINE stated that the United States would use military force if necessary to defend its national interests in the Persian Gulf. The doctrine was a response to the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union
• REAGAN DOCTRINE "We must not break faith with those who are risking their lives...on every continent, from Afghanistan to Nicaragua ... to defy Soviet aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth. Support for freedom fighters is self-defense."
• CLINTON DOCTRINE, “It's easy ... to say that we really have no interests in who lives in this or that valley in Bosnia, or who owns a strip of brushland in the Horn of Africa, or some piece of parched earth by the Jordan River. But the true measure of our interests lies not in how small or distant these places are, or in whether we have trouble pronouncing their names. The question we must ask is what are the consequences to our security of letting conflicts fester and spread. We cannot, indeed, we should not, do everything or be everywhere. But where our values and our interests are at stake, and where we can make a difference, we must be prepared to do so.”
• THE BUSH DOCTRINE declared that the U.S. would "make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them," the Bush Doctrine has come to be identified with a policy that permits preventive war against potential aggressors before they are capable of mounting attacks against the United States.

So far based on word and deed blame America first; apology; appeasement; indecisiveness; passivism; incompetent; confused; and boneheaded all accurately describe the Obama Doctrine. “Bend over, grab our ankles, thank you sir may I have another, pucker up buttercup” also sure enough truly captures the spirit of our National Security challenged so called Commander-in-Chief’s limp wristed Foreign Policy.

Monday night’s pre-prime time Presidential address (a first) from some new location called the Defense College (not the Oval Office, another first) xplainin our military intervention in Libya certainly advanced the weak kneed Obama Doctrine further. Instead of assurances of victory, Khadafy’s demise and US exceptionalism Mr. Obama was just tickled pink to inform us of his success in obtaining UN and Arab League support, our abdication of leadership and intent to tuck tail and run at the first opportune moment.

Following are some highlights/lowlights from the President’s address:

• Tonight, I’d like to update the American people on the international effort that we have led in Libya –- what we’ve done, what we plan to do, and why this matters to us. We have led, don’t you really mean the French, Germans and Italians. Sad but so unfortunately true
• At this point, the United States and the world faced a choice. Qaddafi declared he would show “no mercy” to his own people. He compared them to rats, and threatened to go door to door to inflict punishment. In the past, we have seen him hang civilians in the streets, and kill over a thousand people in a single day. Now we saw regime forces on the outskirts of the city. We knew that if we wanted — if we waited one more day, Benghazi, a city nearly the size of Charlotte, could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world.
• It was not in our national interest to let that happen. I refused to let that happen. And so nine days ago, after consulting the bipartisan leadership of Congress, I authorized military action to stop the killing and enforce U.N. Security Council Resolution. Probably the right thing to do but a matter of our National interest, doubtful at best.
• Moreover, we’ve accomplished these objectives consistent with the pledge that I made to the American people at the outset of our military operations. I said that America’s role would be limited; that we would not put ground troops into Libya; that we would focus our unique capabilities on the front end of the operation and that we would transfer responsibility to our allies and partners. Tonight, we are fulfilling that pledge. Tuck tail and running home like a scalded dog.
• To be blunt, we went down that road in Iraq. Thanks to the extraordinary sacrifices of our troops and the determination of our diplomats, we are hopeful about Iraq’s future. But regime change there took eight years, thousands of American and Iraqi lives, and nearly a trillion dollars. That is not something we can afford to repeat in Libya. Despite our ultimate success of establishing a Democracy smack dab in the middle of the Middle East wouldn’t be an Obama speech without an unfounded jab at W.
• Hot damn, I got permission from the UN, Arab League, Muslim Brotherhood, Ted Turner and Jimmy “the Peanut” Carter and there ain’t no never mind about it it just don’t get any better than that

“Bend over, grab our ankles, thank you sir may I have another, pucker up buttercup”, the Obama Doctrine, diminishes our standing in the world, encourages our enemies, and compromises old alliances and relationships with traditional allies. Reckon we’d most likely all be better off adopting the Buffett Doctrine and remain wasted in Margarettaville till the insanity of the Obama Administration comes to an abrupt and most deserving demise in November 2012.

Cheers!

I am, “American by Birth and Southern by the Grace of God”

Ron W. Garikes