"The Obama Doctrine:" Spock

It is illogical, Mr. Goldberg:

“There is no evidence in modern American foreign policy that that’s how people respond. People respond based on what their imperatives are, and if it’s really important to somebody, and it’s not that important to us, they know that, and we know that,” he said.

I think he is far more right than wrong there. The threat to use force has to be real, or understood to be real, for deterrence to work. 

“There are ways to deter, but it requires you to be very clear ahead of time...

Not always: The Cuban Missile Crisis. Khrushchev had no fucking idea JFK was going to risk World War III over some fucking missiles in Cuba. The installation of missiles in Cuba would not have upset the geopolitical balance of power at all! America had an overwhelming advantage in ballistic missile capability, had first-strike capability in fact. JFK knew that, Khrushchev knew that. JFK went ballistic (ba-da-bum). JFK went ballistic because in his mind the "political" balance of power would have been upset. JFK felt mistreated by Khrushchev at Vienna the year before. Cuba was his chance to get even. He did! Cost Khrushchev his job. 

...about what is worth going to war for and what is not. Now, if there is somebody in this town that would claim that we would consider going to war with Russia over Crimea and eastern Ukraine, they should speak up and be very clear about it. The idea that talking tough or engaging in some military action that is tangential to that particular area is somehow going to influence the decision making of Russia or China is contrary to all the evidence we have seen over the last 50 years.”

Hey. You know what? He's RIGHT! Over the last 50 years, no. The Cuban Missile Crisis was 54 years ago.