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The Spectacle Blog

Krauthammer Nails the ‘Obama Doctrine' (Sic)

By John R. Guardiano on 4.29.11 @ 10:21AM

After fumbling a bit re: the Arab Spring (of which he has been unduly skeptical), Charles Krauahammer is back with another truly superb column this morning, one that reveals his greatness as a columnist. Krauthammer hones in on what has been dubbed the Obama Doctrine, which the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza describes as "leading from behind."

Krauthammer denies that this is a doctrine. "Doctrines," he explains, "involve ideas, but...there are no discernible ones that make sense of Obama foreign policy... It's been a foreign policy of hesitation, delay and indecision, marked by plaintive appeals to the (fictional) ‘international community' to do what only America can," he writes.

Krauthammer then utterly demolishes the facile rationalization offered up by an anonymous administration official for this fraudulent "Obama Doctrine": "The relative power of the U.S. is declining, as rivals like China rise," this official told Lizza, and "the U.S. is reviled in many parts of the world."

But "what does China's rising GDP have to do with American buck-passing on Libya, misjudging Iran, appeasing Syria?" asks Krauthammer. "The challenge of a rising Chinese military," he notes, "is still exclusively regional. It would affect a war over Taiwan. It has zero effect on anything significantly beyond China's coast.

"China," Krauthammer notes, "has no blue-water navy. It has no foreign bases. It cannot project power globally. It might in the future - but by what logic should that paralyze us today?"

As for other countries supposedly hating us, when, pray tell, were we not reviled? asks Krauthammer.

During Vietnam? Or earlier, under Eisenhower? When his vice president, [Richard Nixon], was sent on a goodwill trip to Latin America, he was spat upon and so threatened by the crowds that he had to cut short his trip...

It is the fate of any assertive superpower to be envied, denounced and blamed for everything under the sun. Nothing has changed. Moreover, for a country so deeply reviled, why during the massive unrest in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan and Syria have anti-American demonstrations been such a rarity?

Who truly reviles America the hegemon? The world that Obama lived in and shaped him intellectually: the elite universities; his Hyde Park milieu (including his not-to-be-mentioned friends, William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn); the church he attended for two decades, ringing with sermons more virulently anti-American than anything heard in today's full-throated uprising of the Arab Street.

It is the liberal elites who revile the American colossus and devoutly wish to see it cut down to size. Leading from behind - diminishing America's global standing and assertiveness - is a reaction to their view of America, not the world's.

Krauthammer has it exactly right. And that is why concerns about Obama's alleged "foreign influences" are so misplaced: because in truth, Obama is all too American. But his America is that of the antagonistic and detached liberal academic knowledge class. And, as Georgetown University professor Jeanne Kilpatrick explained back in 1984, they always blame America first.

View all comments (42) | Leave a comment

Dan| 4.29.11 @ 10:33AM

This is not a case of Kirkpatrick's "blame America first," rather it's a case of someone who has HATED America FROM the first, and kept right on hating them throughout his 20s into the present.

Alan Brooks| 4.29.11 @ 10:43AM

Well I don't hate America, I hate the GOP.

Tim the Enchanter| 4.29.11 @ 10:49AM

Well, I don't hate America, I hate the Democrats.

Say! That was easy! And has just as much intellectual depth as what you wrote. Please, Alan, don't change. We like you just as you are.

trinacria| 4.29.11 @ 3:26PM

I don't hate America either, I hate Alan. Shit, Tim, you're right; that was easy (not particularly intellectually satisfying, but satisfying nonetheless)

Casey| 4.29.11 @ 3:38PM

Only a gnat would deem Alan's posts "intellectually satisfying."

Gnat| 4.29.11 @ 3:57PM

Hey, I take offense at that statement!

Casey| 4.29.11 @ 4:13PM

Sorry I insulted your intelligence.

Gnat| 4.29.11 @ 4:16PM

No worries; I get that alot.

Casey| 4.29.11 @ 4:23PM

So does Alan. Why does he keep coming back for the abuse?

Gnat| 4.29.11 @ 4:31PM

Well, you know liberals - always need to feel like a victim. I suspect this abuse is rather useful to him in that regard...

LarryK| 4.29.11 @ 8:16PM

It's called mental illness. Keep doing the same thing expecting a different result. i.e. Liberalism

Frisbee| 4.29.11 @ 9:59PM

he has negative-attention-craving disorder

Casey| 4.29.11 @ 2:50PM

Alan is a useful idiot for the anti-American Left. You may not hate America, Alan, but you elect leaders who do.

What's the difference?

Alan Brooks| 4.29.11 @ 3:31PM

I voted GOP in the '80s because I know on which side my bread is buttered on-- but I
would never have voted for Dole for instance.
Or Nixon, or Ford. McCain was at least a step up from Dole and Nixon-- which isn't saying much.

Ford?: he didn't count.

Casey| 4.29.11 @ 3:37PM

Yeah, you just voted for the pervert in chief, Willy Clinton and failure in chief Jimmuh Carter. Get off your high-horse, clown.

Alan Brooks| 4.29.11 @ 3:45PM

No, in the '90s I only voted for a guy named Gunderson (who turned out to be a conspiracy theorist, Google him, you'll see).
I never voted in the '70s.
Carter?? get off your low horse, he is our second worst president, after LBJ... better to have voted for Nixon rather than Carter.

But I WILL vote for Obama next year.

Alan Brooks| 4.29.11 @ 3:56PM

... because a really good GOP guy (or gal) can't get elected anymore-- can't even get to be a POTUS candidate. WFB was one of the best, but he couldn't make it as a candidate except for mayor of NYC. You can't even try to canvass the cream of the GOP for the best??

Trinacria| 4.29.11 @ 4:28PM

So now we're supposed to follow the wise counsel of a guy who voted for: (1) Gunderson (who turned out to be some wacko conspiracy theorist); (2) Clinton (who turned out to be some wacko cigar fetishist); (3) Obammy (who turns out to be a smug, mendacious, arrogant, unqualified, unnuanced, intellectually bereft, unmitigated disaster of a magnitude that is unsurpassed in US history).

By golly, Alan, you've convinced me; I'm going to vote for Obama next year, too (in the end, great wisdom always prevails).

Trinacria| 4.29.11 @ 4:02PM

Idiot, yes; but useful? Really?

Casey| 4.29.11 @ 4:15PM

Democrats will use any idiot they can to get re-elected.

Gnat| 4.29.11 @ 4:17PM

Direct hit. I stand corrected...

Oldefarte| 4.29.11 @ 10:38AM

Sadly, the current picture of democratic-like protests within middle eastern countries will eventually turn out badly/adversely for the US, as the Muslim terrorist factions with same will take over political power in the end. These Mubarek-style dictator governments were bad no doubt, but the eventual alternative to same will be much, much worse!!!!!!!!!!!

Alan Brooks| 4.29.11 @ 10:41AM

"anything significantly beyond China's coast.'China,' Krauthammer notes, 'has no blue-water navy. It has no foreign bases. It cannot project power globally. It might in the future - but by what logic should that paralyze us today?' "

Because China is not going bankrupt, as we are. China has ascended in the last 20 years; while America has been treading water with Bush League 'leadership'.

Alan Brooks| 4.29.11 @ 10:47AM

... and when your next Bushleaguer is elected in '16-- or possibly next year-- the treading of water shall continue.
Remember this: Obama is certain to leave office someday, and the GOP is certain to screw it up indefinitely

Dan| 4.29.11 @ 10:58AM

Alan, what Obama is doing is without precedent in our history.

This isn't some ordinary screw up, which we are likely to encounter by some governor or other, who doesn't know what he or she is doing.

This is on a scale unlike anything we've ever encountered. And the consequences of what he has wrought will blight our shared future for decades to come. And whereas ordinary politicians would be overwrought about the real unemployment and underemployment numbers, would be scared to death of that skyrocketing debt, obama goes on blithely unconcerned, almost unaware.

There's some distinctly and decidedly anti-human about him. And everybody is now beginning to sense that about him.

This is a flat-out disaster, and the scope of this disaster should move all Americans way beyond mundane political party concerns.

simon templar| 4.29.11 @ 5:51PM

Alan..your going to find this strange but you are right. But you forget one important thing, we conservatives, not GOP sychophants or progressive republicans, will be doing everything in our power to elect in the years ahead, REAL conservatives. We will continue to replace the bushleaguers, The RINO's, the stupids in the GOP, and the old tired guard with the Wests, the Ryans, the Christies, etc. This is what you need to be concerned about. It has already started in the last election. I am afraid you will be pooping in your pants during the next one.

Occam's Tool| 4.29.11 @ 1:18PM

Dear Alan,

Demographics will implode China. Our job is to contain them until they implode.

What do you think of Alan West?

Occam's Tool| 4.29.11 @ 1:19PM

Sorry. Allen West.

Warrior| 4.29.11 @ 2:04PM

The best answer you will get from Brooks is that he was the best Batman.

Casey| 4.29.11 @ 2:44PM

At best Brooks was Robin.

Casey| 4.29.11 @ 2:47PM

Because of China's inhuman (forced) abortion policies, young Chinese men far outnumber Chinese women. Too many single men mean war.

Alan Brooks| 4.29.11 @ 3:50PM

"The best answer you will get from Brooks is that he was the best Batman."

Good one. Guys, I confuse Morgan Fairchild with Morgan Freeman!

Casey| 4.29.11 @ 4:18PM

BS. You Leftists just pretend you're color-blind.

trinacria| 4.29.11 @ 3:54PM

Quick, Alan - name the last extraordinary achievement/breakthrough to come from China. Anything - technilogical, medical, literary, philosophical, theological, sociological, economic - pick any one. I'll even give you a 2,000-year time span from which you can choose. One single globally significant contribution...

Can't name one? Know why? These people aren't thinkers, they're followers; they aren't innovators, they're copiers - AND THEY DON'T EVEN DO THAT PARTICULARLY WELL. Take for example, their recent unveiling of their first "stealth" fighter aircraft (the J-20). Bearing in mind that stealth technology has now been in existence for not years, but decades, these guys proudly trotted out a prototype that was about as stealth as a city bus and technilogically comparable to aircraft that the US already had in service by the late 1980's. And we're supposed to fear these cockroaches? Nah, I'll pass.

Alan Brooks| 4.29.11 @ 3:59PM

What??? the Chinese went from absolute poverty to where they are now in 33 years-- never been done before. It was like going from 1492 to 1776 in 33 years.

Trinacria| 4.29.11 @ 4:08PM

Have you BEEN to China? Dude, spend 5 minutes on the ground there and you will clearly see that this place is still a stinking shit hole.

By the way, I'm still waiting for a single globally significant achievment in ANY field of human endeavor ("improving" your own economy hardly counts, particularly when your baseline doesn't allow for anything BUT improvement...).

Trinacria| 4.29.11 @ 4:10PM

By the way, going from 1492 to 1776 is hardly a boastful achievement when the rest of the world is in 2011...

simon templar| 4.29.11 @ 5:59PM

How old are you, Alan? Have you heard of a guy named Richrad Nixon? Thirty plus years ago he established diplomatic and business relations with China. Since then American businesses and technology has gone there as well as capital and has essentially rebuilt this country in that time span. They have stolen the rest through intellectual property theft. Please, you know this.

Wayne | 4.29.11 @ 12:34PM

Remember to Obama the enemy is 1. Trump, 2. Palin, 3. The Tea Party, 4. The GOP in that order. The American People is not some ignorant rabble who are dismissed. Who can blame him, he got their vote, by saying Hope and Change.

Libya has more to do with keeping Qaddhafi in power than to remove him, and Syria is a friend of the left and they will protect Syria.

Trinacria| 4.29.11 @ 4:15PM

"Remember, to Obama the enemy is 1. Trump, 2. Palin, 3. The Tea Party, 4. The GOP in that order."

I must respectfully disagree, Wayne. To Obama, the enemy is 1. America, 2. American exceptionalism, 3. American leadership (you know, the kind where you lead from the front...).