Why Does the World Feel so Tentative?

Why does the world feel so tentative, so uncertain, so full of fear? The mood and confidence that things would eventually turn out for the better has slowly given way to a fragility of spirit full of doubts and trepidations expecting disasters looming ahead on the horizon. The first sign that something was wrong and terribly out of sorts came as brave and resolute patriots in Benghazi fought off for hours unknown numbers of terrorists armed as well as a modern infantry company replete with mortars, anti-tank rounds, RPGs, heavy machine guns and AK-47s. These few survived over six hours while under siege all the time signaling their desperate need for reinforcements or at least some air support on targets which they had painted with laser indicators which would have enabled stand-off directed munitions to be directed to their target. Somewhere the order originated for all ready response and other units, some who had already prepared to deploy, to stand-down leaving Americans to die alone and unaided. The insults performed on the corpse of the United States Ambassador to Libya were disgraceful and should have been sufficient raison d’être to lose a fearsome retribution upon those who desecrated the bodies of our Ambassador and the others who died alone that dark day. The shifting stories and fabrications told to obscure the truth so as to avoid owning up to their malfeasance and neglection of duty by President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton, United Nations Ambassador Rice and other administration spokespersons only served to feed the doubts and worries of the American people and was the start of the fall of the United States that would fuel a universal malaise. The truth is that Benghazi was not the first sign that there was something wrong, some form of disconnect between the Commander in Chief and the military which was making employing the military difficult as there seemed to be an overriding reluctance to utilize the military even when to most such was the obvious solution. The first example came when Somali pirates had captured the Captain of an American ship and the Commander on a United States Navy warship had to act without having received approval from Washington as the pirates were heading out of international waters beyond which any intervention could be taken as an act of war. President Obama grabbed the helm claiming he had acted just in time to allow the rescue operation after the snipers aboard the Navy vessel picked off the pirates allowing for a rescue to be mounted. Then we learned after the mission which took out Osama bin-Laden had sat for over six months before President Obama finally permitted the plan to be executed. Even then the President set the attack up so that if it failed a high military officer would take the brunt of the blame while President Obama reserved the bragging rights after the mission proved a success. Who can forget the claims during the last campaign that President Obama had killed Osama bin-Laden and because of that he should be trusted as a brave and committed commander and master of foreign affairs.

 

The next shock to the credibility of American force projection came with the ever shifting Red Line which threatened to bring serious repercussions down on Syria should they ever resort to utilizing their chemical weapons. There were a number of somewhat murky claims by France, Britain, Saudi Arabia, and Israel sometimes together but always at least two or three reporting presumably credible evidence that Bashir al-Assad had deployed chemical weapons. Finally, after numerous presumed false alarms there was an inarguable use of chemical weapons which had caused over a thousand fatalities. This was the point where the United States Commander in Chief once again became the United States Ditherer in Chief as he hemmed and hawed doing everything possible to wiggle his way far from fulfilling his Red Line threats to al-Assad. Eventually, President Obama had to be rescued by Russian President Putin from imploding over the dilemma of whether he actually meant to make a threat over the crossing of his Red Line or did he only have to ask the United Nations to write a stern letter. Where this made President Putin appear strong, it also made President Obama appear small by comparison costing the United States its position of preeminence in the world. It has become evident that there is no American influence for as long as President Obama remains in office. It will also make it possibly a difficult climb to regain the prestige that President Obama has squandered. The fall of the United States as the guarantor of order and peace in the world compromised to the point the United States with the most potent military in the world has become neutered and no longer consequential on the world’s stage. What this will result in at the very least will be an Iran with deliverable nuclear weapons. The truth is that once Iran officially crosses the threshold becoming the newest nuclear armed nation on Earth, there will be a number of other Middle East nations who will feel compelled to also join the nuclear weapons club. Saudi Arabia will likely become a nuclear armed nation within weeks, or at worst months, as the Saudi Royal Family has an understanding with Pakistan whose nuclear program they financed. Both Turkey and Egypt can be expected to also work feverishly attaining nuclear weapons status within a year. Syria and Hezballah can both expect to gain nuclear capabilities at the direction of the Iranian Mullahs who would also provide the weapons. If you honestly believe that everything will be just fine going forward then ask yourself one simple question, “Exactly how safe will you feel when the Middle East and North Africa is armed from one end to the other with nuclear weaponry?” There is a limit to anybody’s comfort zone and a nuclear armed Middle East should easily remove anybody from their comfort zone and that is likely the source of the nervous trepidation spreading across the globe.

 

Beyond the Cusp