Every president's foreign policy is labeled his "doctrine." President Monroe's was that no European power would be permitted to dominate part of the Western Hemisphere. President Reagan's was "peace through strength", accelerating the demise of the Soviets.
What is the Obama Doctrine? After two years of his presidency, President Obama has defined a doctrine aimed at reducing America from "superpower" to "also-ran."
By shunning allies and empowering enemies, by reducing military strength, Obama is reducing our ability to protect allies and pursue interests abroad. Given his record, it's no longer possible to accuse Obama of naivete: He is at work pursuing his goal.
Obama revealed this goal in the context of Middle Eastern conflicts, saying, "It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce these conflicts because whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them, and that ends up costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure."
Not that America is justly proud of its ability to protect ourselves and allies, to protect freedom and pursue our interests globally. Not that we are a force for good.
"Whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower." That dominance has kept much of the world free since World War II. Obama aims to end it.
Obama began implementing his doctrine within days of inauguration. He symbolically ended the "special relationship" between Britain and America by inexplicably returning their gift of a bust of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, which for years had watched over the Oval Office.
Soon after, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House, Obama treated him as an enemy, not as our only ally in the Middle East, creating a distrust we cannot afford.
Obama's defining moment occurred in June 2009 when the Honduran supreme court ordered the removal of President Jose Manuel Zelaya for violating the Honduran constitution by trying to stay in power past his term.
Obama didn't stand with freedom-loving Hondurans and for American principle. Instead, he sided with Cuban President Raul Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, condemning the "coup."
Casting the Pentagon's future not in steel but in glass, Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have reduced or eliminated most key weapon systems -- ranging from F-22 fighters to the DDX-1000 stealthy combatant ship -- which would have maintained the technological superiority that our forces have depended on since the Korean War to win quickly and decisively.
Meeting with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in Japan on Nov. 13, Obama assured him that ratification of the new START agreement was top priority.
That new agreement -- for the first time -- links missile defense to offensive nuclear weapons. It enables the Russians to abandon obligations to reduce their arsenal if we pursue missile defenses not to their liking.
Conservatives, led by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., wanted a full debate on the treaty in the new Congress, but Obama insisted that it had to be immediately ratified.
With the help of nearly a dozen Republican defectors, it was ratified in November. The Russians -- contemptuous of Obama's weakness -- delayed their own vote until January.
Obama and Gates agree with the objectives of the gay activist lobby, so they slammed through Congress a repeal of "don't ask, don't tell." It will, in the words of the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Hugh Shelton, break our combat arms. And it is the most divisive action by the liberal elite in decades.
Its effects will be evident soon and may well be as dire as Shelton's forecast.
In two short years, "hope and change" have taken us from "peace through strength" to weakness that will embolden our enemies everywhere.
Jed Babbin is author of "How Obama is transforming America's military from superpower to paper tiger." This article is excerpted from the Encounter Broadside series.
