The real Obama Doctrine?

History is happening in real time and only its passage will reveal in the outcome in Libya. That said, Esquire's Thomas P.M. Barnett thinks he has uncovered the real "Obama Doctrine," and he's impressed.

Barnett believes President Obama is being underestimated and misunderstood yet again. (What is it about Obama that brings out the Rorschach inkblot tests?) He quickly shoots down the myth that Obama is a risk-adverse wimp prone to "apology tours" and random acts of hollow "engagement." Per Barnett, "He's got no problem killing people to keep America safe." (See Afghanistan surge, escalating drone attacks, and planet-wide Special Forces ops where, as Barnett drolly notes, we notify you where to pick up the bodies after we've entered and departed your space without permission.)

Next, Obama has dispensed with George W. Bush's cowboyish "our way or the highway" approach to war. Barnett says having wisely discerned that there is in fact "global demand out there for America's intervention & stabilization services," Obama has fashioned a fiendishly clever "you first" strategy. You want American help in Libya? Fudgeddaboudit -- unless "damn near everybody signs off on it first: the United Nations Security Council, NATO, the Arab League, the Africa Union, the Tuesdays with Morrie Bookclub — everybody."

In this way, America can portray itself as a reluctant Leviathan. Once "talked into" military action, the "shtick effectively de-ideologize US participation — essentially ‘laundering’ our motives through others. Plus, it has the virtue of sheer transparency — as in, what you see is what you asked for."

On Libya, Barnett was deeply skeptical about whether Obama's "you first" doctrine would work. Until it did. He thinks Obama's approach is Brer Rabbit-level genius — so long as it works, of course. If he pulls it off (i.e., Gaddafi is dispatched with minimum bloodshed), Barnett thinks a second Nobel Prize is in order. But that is a big if. Anyway, it’s a fascinating read. Check it out here.