Obama's Grand Strategy

[Bill Moore]

Another interpretation of the Obama doctrine and how his strategy has undermined American power prematurely. A few quips from the article follow.

http://www.theatlantic.com/internati...ionist/473205/

Obama Is Not a Realist
He’s an isolationist with drones and special-operations forces.

Is Obama overseeing the self-containment, or “self-disempowerment,” of the mightiest nation on earth?

All told, in Goldberg’s words, Obama believes that the “the price of direct U.S. action would be higher than the price of inaction.”

Realism is more complicated. A realist knows that distant threats, if ignored, can turn into direct ones.

Speaking of the Middle East

Today, the Russians are back in force, posing a deadly risk to anybody who would dislodge them from the Levant. Today, Assad’s army is on a roll; millions of refugees have flooded into neighboring lands and into Europe.

True about Assad for now, but it appears Obama got it right about the Russians being unable to sustain themselves in Syria due to over reaching in the Ukraine and the drop in oil prices. They had ends and ways without means. Assuming the Russians actually do pull out the question then becomes s will Assad stand without active Russian intervention? Is Iran on its last legs also?

[Bill Moore]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...-about-it.html

‘America in Retreat’: Why Neo-Isolationism Exploded Under Obama and What We Can Do About It

Pulitzer Prize winner Bret Stephens’ new book looks at an America in retreat from global engagement.

The book: America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder

http://www.amazon.com/America-Retrea...&linkCode=as2&

Stephens argues the only alternative to American global dominance are three failed approaches to security: liberal peace, balance of power, and collective security.

But future readers interested in learning about the era in which America decided to withdraw from its responsibilities as global hegemon should turn to Stephens’ book, which is not merely a critique of the Obama administration but a more general endorsement of America’s role as world policeman.

[davidbfpo]

Professor Scott Walker, an American and long time UK resident, has a scathing review of President Obama's recent interview: https://theconversation.com/obama-blithely-sells-out-his-allies-and-millions-of-syrians-in-legacy-interview-56224?

[AmericanPride]

Interesting arguments that Obama is somehow an isolationist in any sense. It's better defined as 'selective engagement'.

[Bill Moore]

Interesting arguments that Obama is somehow an isolationist in any sense. It's better defined as 'selective engagement'.

Agreed, and I disagree with Outlaw's assertion that Wilson was an isolationist. The country at that time was in an isolationist mood, but Wilson was engaged globally (selectively). He sent two military expeditions to Mexico, managed to gain support to enter WWI, shaped the post WWI world order (arguably ineffectively, but he was engaged), and pushed for China's independence. Neither Obama nor Wilson were isolationists.

[Bill Moore]

Professor Scott Walker, an American and long time UK resident, has a scathing review of President Obama's recent interview: https://theconversation.com/obama-blithely-sells-out-his-allies-and-millions-of-syrians-in-legacy-interview-56224?

Some of this seems a little over the top, but of course he has a narrative and going over the top makes it resonate more.

Rather than evaluate what could be done to mitigate the damage, Obama has chided allies such as Britain, Germany, and France. He has implicitly lashed out at his former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, as she campaigns to succeed him. And he has shown little regard for the hundreds of thousands of Syrians who have been killed and the millions who have been displaced, and who will continue to die and flee in his final months in office.

Chided? Britain allegedly ran out of munitions during the Libya operation. If true, chiding may be called for, since there are certain expectations that everyone in a collective security organization like NATO pulls their weight. Of course we know that isn't the case and hasn't been the case for decades now. Obama wasn't the only President to call them out, and Dick Cheney referred to the original members as "old Europe," and it wasn't intended as a compliment. Several former U.S. SECDEFs called NATO members out for not investing the bare minimum of their GDP into defense as agreed upon. The term freeloaders may be a loaded term, but it isn't entirely without merit. The interview also suggested a close relationship between Merkel and Obama, so not sure where the chiding is there. As for France, they have been increasingly supportive when it comes to pursuing mutual interests in a number of areas. Obama ignored the advice from two of his Secretaries of State, Bush ignored Secretary of State Powell, and I'm sure if we go back in history we'll find plenty of examples. At the end of the day the President if responsible for making the decision. He or she must compare the pro's and con's not only as it relates to diplomacy, but our security, our economic interests, and the will/appetite of the American people, all that and more influence a decision. I think most agree his call on Syria, while understandable, was a bad call, but he owned up to it (surprisingly). Oddly, he sees that decision as a positive.

[Bill Moore]

Outlaw,

Really?

3. disconnect the US completely from ME and Europe

Reference point 3.....Obama has actually allowed Russia to fully achievement this point all on his own...especially with the release of his Obama doctrine interview one can "see" exactly how Obama himself supports this.....

These achievements are not as some have stated here..."melodramatic".....it is the ground reality staring us literally in the face and daily now...

I made the statement and I'll make it again, this is melodramatic. We're not "completely" out of the Middle East or Europe, nor is there any indication that will happen despite Russia's alleged desires to push us out. Though it does seem that Russia downsized in the ME almost overnight. We have more forces in Europe than we did when Bush left office. This doesn't even address our diplomatic and economic engagement. We're still heavily engaged in the ME, and will be for some time to come. There is also a depend signal from both regions for us to be engaged more than we are. We're still a great power, but we have enough crises (slow burn and immediate) to deal with it without creating the myth that we have somehow been pushed out of either of those regions.

[OUTLAW 09]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...-about-it.html

‘America in Retreat’: Why Neo-Isolationism Exploded Under Obama and What We Can Do About It

Pulitzer Prize winner Bret Stephens’ new book looks at an America in retreat from global engagement.

The book: America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder

http://www.amazon.com/America-Retrea...&linkCode=as2&

Stephens argues the only alternative to American global dominance are three failed approaches to security: liberal peace, balance of power, and collective security.

I have here stated since Putin's Crimea military annexation that Obama and his NSC are the weakest we have seen in over 70 years....AND that you cannot tell the difference between the Wilsonian policies of 1920 from Obama's FP.

That has all been without any books....just what the straight reality on the ground has been telling us...it is just many did not want to "see" it.

Just as I have been pointing out the three hardcore Putin geopolitical goals behind his non linear war and believe me now..it is a the first true 21st century grey zone war...meaning just a tad under direct confrontation but a war nevertheless.

1. damage and discredit NATO
2. damage and discredit EU
3. disconnect the US completely from ME and Europe

Reference point 1.....almost achieved since NATO basically turned it's back on Turkey and did not threaten to use Article 5 in the confrontation with Putin and his support for the PKK and now equally Putin's support to the US supported proxy YPG which is just a subunit of PKK coupled with the debate on whether NATO will or will not support the Baltics in an Article 5 event. BTW....this NATO position was overall pushed by the Obama WH prior to the NATO meeting...

Reference point 2......almost achieved via the refugee crisis..... and with the vast Russian money and info war support for European right wing populist parties down to even neo Nazi parties.
Putin's hand grows stronger as right-wing parties advance in Europe
http://bloom.bg/1pmca6V via @leonidragozin

Germany...far right wing populist AfD is winning parliament seats in virtually all of the major elections now.....AfD is anti EU, anti immigrant...anti NATO and anti US and funded by Russia as is the French National Front also scheduled to have major wins in France which is just as equally anti EU and anti NATO coupled with the open and direct Russian funding/info war support of Brexit campaign.

Reference point 3.....Obama has actually allowed Russia to fully achievement this point all on his own...especially with the release of his Obama doctrine interview one can "see" exactly how Obama himself supports this.....

These achievements are not as some have stated here..."melodramatic".....it is the ground reality staring us literally in the face and daily now...

I have also been hammering the theme Putin truly wants a "new Yalta 2.0"...and his FM basically stated as much this week.....posted the interview.

My serious concern is simply...Obama also wants a new Yalta 2.0 as well and that is extremely dangerous for Europe as a whole and no US President has openly advanced that concept as has Obama especially if one really "reads" his Doctrine interview....

NOW take all the recent interviews with Obama and his actual actions over the past seven going on eight years and then tell me Obama is not an isolationist in the Wilsonian sense of the word....AND what did it cost the US when it came out of that isolation phase....??

Plenty......

BTW...all of this was seen without the aid of a single book......ground reality is an excellent instructor if one is willing to just "see and understand".....something we forgot in Iraq to do and it is killing us in the ME.

Obama thinks of himself as a progressive realist.....he is neither a true progressive nor a true realist as he runs from the use of the terms "invasion and genocide" like a vampire from a silver cross.

He is simply far more interested in his image and his legacy than anything else ie Syrian genocide, a Russian invasion of Ukraine and the forceful military annexation of Crimea which changed the borders of Europe for the first time since the Wall fell.

The impromptu rap in front of the WH
The White House
✔ ‎@WhiteHouse Wait for it... ⬇ #Bam4Ham

[OUTLAW 09]

HAS there been a sudden "awakening" or second coming in the Obama WH??.....Kerry and Nuland were constantly ramming down the throat of Ukraine that they had to implement "unilateral appeasement moves" without a single reciprocal demand being made on Russia......ie hold Russian demanded elections inside the so called Russian occupied eastern zone of Ukraine....very similar to the demands by Assad to hold elections in all of Syria but basically only what he holds.....

These US unilateral demands were being backed up by Germany and French FM statements.......now when it appears the entire Ukrainian civil society is fully against it...we get this...

Nuland: Russia should not expect constitutional changes in Ukraine until Minsk deal...
http://www.unian.info/politics/12913...plemented.html …

NOW a sudden tonal change by Nuland...what happened??????