Opinion: Anybody Know What the Obama Doctrine Is?

OK, it's now one week later.

President Barack Obama dithers over Libya with the predictable result that things have become even worse. Earlier administrations might have sent cruisers, but we managed a commercial ferry to evacuate Americans in fear for their lives. The Brits, however, secretly sent in military aircraft to evacuate 150 of their nationals from harm's way. Even the Dutch sent in three of their Marines -- who were promptly taken prisoner by armed Libyan forces.

Meanwhile, the emboldened Moammar Gadhafi set about making three-hour speeches and sending his ragamuffin air force to bomb rebel strongholds -- close to strategic oil terminals.

It is as if the crisis-management team from Deepwater Horizon had relocated to North Africa to be closer to the next oil disaster.

But wherever is the Obama administration getting its grand strategy for dealing with the Mediterranean? Is there any strategy at all?

Up until two years ago, we had well-armed fleets patrolling a region where Americans once fought and died -- from Tripoli to the Kasserine Pass. So why are we acting as if a wacko chieftain in a clown costume is no big deal? That oil supplies and bombed-out refugees are of no possible concern? That Gadhafi's rants are best understood as the stuff of Comedy Central -- laughingly compared to those of Charlie Sheen?

The serious point -- from the Gulf oil disaster to just about five minutes ago -- is that we have a continuing failure of presidential leadership.

Elections certainly have consequences, but what exactly is the Obama Doctrine? Assuming there is anything more substantial to his foreign policy than "smart diplomacy," then what is it? Speak softly to the Muslim world and hoping that it will love us in return? Speak more firmly to Iran and then try to remain calm when it ignores everything we just said? Or North Korea: How's that working out for us, Mr. President?

Even in the history-challenged world of American high schools, they still study what both Roosevelts said about the relationship between America and the world: "Speak softy and carry a big stick" and "December 7th, 1941 -- a date which will live in Infamy."

Advanced Placement courses may even learn about the Truman Doctrine of containment and the creation of postwar institutions like NATO. Maybe George W. Bush overreached on the war on terror, but at least everyone knew where he stood. And when he saw Saddam Hussein being pulled out of a spider-hole at gunpoint, even Gadhafi behaved himself for a while.

None of which is now the case with Barack Obama, supremely intellectual and as academically disengaged as if he were competing for a tenured position at his Columbia alma mater, where even wounded heroes are routinely jeered at.

But it is really odd that a politician from Chicago could have missed the basic rule of the international jungle so succinctly spelled out in "The Untouchables" by Sean Connery:

"They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. Now that's the 'Chicago way'!"

So now what are you prepared to do, Mr. Obama?

Retired Col. Ken Allard, a former dean of the National War College and NBC News analyst, is a prolific writer on national security issues.