The Obama Doctrine

The problem with a narcisstic president is that everything is all about him. The latest apology/I’m not G.W. Bush tour was a dismal failure. President Obama attended the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad. This summit was on the heels of the G-20 Summit in London and the NATO summit in Strasbourg, France. At both, Obama came away empty-handed. The goal was for this administration to ask for and receive agreement that Europe needs mega stimulus packages to combat the economic woes there and to ask for and receive additional troops to support our efforts in Afghanistan.

President Obama received a promise from France to take one prisoner released from Gitmo and NATO pledged some additional support in training military police, not troops on the ground. The idea of additional economic stimulus packages in Europe was soundly rejected by all.

The problem is President Obama thinks that by going to every gathering and apologizing for perceived greviences allows him to receive applause at the expense of his own country. Much has been written about all the love for the President. Unfortunately this does not translate to actions. President Sarkozy of France called Obama words like insincere and unoriginal. President Obama forgets that former President Bush had a good relationship with both Sarkozy and Germany’s Angela Merkel, the two European leaders Obama came to impress. By going out of his way to claim to be a different - read better - President than Bush, he insults them, too.
President Obama was all too happy to embrace the overtures from Hugo Chavez. Just last month Chavez called Obama an “ignoramus”. Chavez is quoted as saying he welcomes Obama with the same handshake he welcomed Bush eight years ago. We know what happened after that.

Obama sat through fifty minutes of ranting by Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega on the evils of America. Never mind that Ortega supported communist guerrillas in El Salvador and undermined other Latin America countries in the 1980’s. When asked for a response, Obama said, “I’m grateful the President did not blame me for things that happened when I was three months old.” Instead of listing the goodness of America, instead of thanking the military that makes the U.S. such a strong and safe country, Obama was happy not to be blamed in the rant of Ortega. Unbelievable.
Obama either doesn’t understand or just doesn’t care - his first duty is to defend the U.S. To defend our honor is part of the job description. It’s not about him, it is about America.

The Obama Doctrine is summed up by this quote from Time Magazine: “And so we’re still going to have very tough negotiations on a whole host of issues. In Europe, people believe in our plan for Afghanistan, but their politics are still such that it’s hard for leaders to want to send more troops into Afghanistan. That’s not going to change because I’m popular in Europe or leaders think that I’ve been respectful towards them. On the other hand, by having established those better relations, it means that among the population there’s more confidence that working with the United States is beneficial, and they are going to try to do more than they might otherwise have done.”

By an ideology that is naive to the ways of international leaders, Obama “hopes” that by talking without pre-conditions to men who wish us ill, such as Chavez or Ahmadinejad, he is slapped with insults. Why did he not just do what the King of Spain did in 2007 and tell Chavez to shut up as he hogged the stage once again? Why doesn’t Obama forge ahead with the Columbia free trade agreement to reward that country’s efforts in improving human rights and labor conditions instead of the handshakes with Chavez, the proud socialist who jails journalists and grabs private lands for his own distribution goals?

For President Obama it is all about being loved. That is a pity. Obama’s aides claim by doing the apology tours he is planting seeds of new relationships. The question is what kind of relationships? We will soon know what blooms.

*Cross Posted at www.motherofallconservatives.com