The Obama Doctrine: Inarticulate or disengaged?
updated 8:31 PM EDT, Wed August 13, 2014
Source: CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Hillary Clinton called Obama's guiding foreign policy principle too simplistic
- Obama didn't take the former secretary of state's criticism personally, an adviser says
- Those within his inner circle admit the President has had problems articulating his policy
Ever since the President
uttered the phrase during an off-the-record discussion with reporters
earlier this year -- the actual words were a bit saltier and later
confirmed privately by administration officials -- foreign policy
critics have seized on "DDSS" as a crystallization of the Obama
Doctrine.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is only the latest critic of the "DDSS" comment, describing the remark in an interview with The Atlantic magazine as too simplistic.
"Great nations need organizing principles, and 'Don't do stupid stuff' is not an organizing principle," she said.
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Clinton called Obama
on Tuesday, to "make sure he knows that nothing she said was an attempt
to attack him," her spokesman Nick Merrill said in a statement. The two will meet at a party
hosted by Democratic Party adviser Vernon Jordan on Martha's Vineyard
on Wednesday evening, after she holds a book signing on the island.
In an interview with CNN,
Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes insisted that "DDSS" is not
the "entire foreign policy" of the Obama administration. But he
maintained the expression has substance.
"It means think carefully
before you get into military interventions," he said. "I think that's a
lesson of the last 10 years that the American people have internalized
-- that we have to be very careful when it comes to the application of
military force, that we're not putting U.S. troops in harm's way without
a clear plan and limited objectives for that effort."
Rhodes said the President did not take the criticism from Clinton personally.
"I think their relationship is very resilient. They've been through so much together," he said.
Shaped by more than a decade of war
Clinton's apparent
support for a more hawkish U.S. posture comes as Obama's foreign policy
has absorbed withering criticism in recent weeks. But her potentially
more interventionist approach carries its own set of risks, diplomatic
and political analysts caution.
" 'Don't do stupid
stuff' ought to be emblazoned on the foreheads of all future presidents
and secretaries of state," said Aaron David Miller, a former State
Department adviser during both Democratic and Republican
administrations.
Miller said "DDSS" is less a doctrine than it is a presidential mission statement that is shaped by more than a decade of war.
"Stripped to its essence, after protecting the homeland, it should be U.S. foreign policy's second commandment," he added.
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"I view that as a
political summary ... much like 'It's the economy, stupid,' " Rep. Adam
Schiff, D-California, said, comparing "DDSS" to the middle-class battle
cry coined by Bill Clinton strategist James Carville during the 1992
presidential election.
Schiff said the former
secretary of state's comments do not reflect a political break from the
President, arguing the perception of a conflict just makes "good copy."
The President's strategy
on crises ranging from Syria to Iraq and Ukraine offers a sharp
contrast to Republicans who "act first and think last," Schiff said.
"The risks of becoming fully entangled in Iraq are tremendous," he added.
The President's cautious
approach is nothing new. A line can be traced from "DDSS" to the
anti-Iraq war speech he delivered as an Illinois state senator in 2002.
"What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war," Obama said at the time.
Scars from 2008 primary still remain
It was that 2002 speech
that endeared Obama to the liberal base of the Democratic Party, in part
because of then-Sen. Clinton's support for the Iraq war.
The policy battle over
Iraq that later erupted between Obama and Clinton in their fight for the
party's nomination ultimately resulted in a Democrat returning to the
White House. But the divide left deep scars between the two camps that
were still healing even as Clinton unleashed her critique of Obama's
worldview.
That difficult history
is why Clinton's comments to The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg came as a
shock to one senior Democratic strategist, who spoke on condition of
anonymity.
Specifically disturbing,
the strategist said, was the former secretary of state's insistence
that Obama's lack of support for the Syrian opposition gave rise to the
ISIS militants in Iraq.
"Why you'd want to do
that, I have no idea," the prominent, non-Obama affiliated strategist
said of Clinton's plea for more direct U.S. involvement in Syria.
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Citing the nation's reluctance to plunge back into Middle East conflicts, the strategist added, "Politically, Obama's right."
In a flashback to '08, Obamaworld lunged to the President's defense Tuesday, in a tweet that appeared to tweak Clinton.
"Just to clarify: 'Don't
do stupid stuff' means stuff like occupying Iraq in the first place,
which was a tragically bad decision," former Obama adviser David Axelrod tweeted.
Better job communicating its strategy
Still, even the
President's own advisers acknowledge that Obama has had a difficult time
clearly articulating his foreign policy doctrine.
During his overseas trip
to Asia this year, Obama used a baseball metaphor to explain his
reluctance to intervene militarily against a variety of threats,
including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who crossed a "red line" set
by the President barring chemical weapon use.
That caution "avoids
errors," Obama said. "You hit singles, you hit doubles; every once in a
while, we may be able to hit a home run."
After much of Washington
pounced on the sports analogy, White House aides began plotting out a
more thoughtful speech on American leadership that would be delivered at
West Point.
Before that address,
Rhodes conceded to The New York Times that the administration could do a
better job of communicating its strategy.
"People are seeing the trees, but we're not necessarily laying out the forest," Rhodes said.
Obama told the cadets at
West Point the U.S. should be willing to intervene, but not overreach,
acting alone only when necessary.
"Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail," Obama said, opting to switch metaphors.
The apparent struggle to neatly encapsulate the President's strategy is not lost on his critics.
"I do think the
administration is showing some signs of a little bit of fatigue,"
Brookings Institution analyst Michael O'Hanlon said in a recent
interview with CNN.
"It's time for a little more ambition frankly because the world senses that this President is too disengaged," O'Hanlon added.
A now more ambitious
Obama is engaged in Iraq, risking what his aides have long described as
his post-Bush legacy of "ending wars, not starting them."
As past presidents have learned in Iraq, it is "easy to get in, hell to get out," Schiff said.
end quote from:
As he has reportedly said, "Don't do stupid stuff."
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