Therein lies the greatest geopolitical change since 1941 — the year that America joined the war and by extension accepted the role of superpower and the leadership of the free world. Rightly or wrongly, most of America's allies, and countries and people who look up to America, now fear that they will not be rescued.
America has abandoned the Iranian people who clamoured for freedom in 2009; instead it is negotiating with their oppressors.
Barack Obama has told the world that Syria's brutish dictator, Bashar al-Assad, must go. Yet everybody knows that, as far as America is concerned, Assad will still be in office when Obama goes off to build his presidential library in 2017.
America has allowed Russia back into the Middle East, after successfully evicting the Soviet Union and keeping it at bay for four decades. It has handed Russia and Iran a victory in Syria by choosing not to fight. It appears to have done the same in the Black Sea, where multilateral diplomacy is no substitute for projecting superpower muscle. It will now preside over the dismemberment of Ukraine, content with sanctions and the occasional complaint that Russia needs "to de-escalate" and stop behaving in a 19th-century manner.
All this is disheartening and dangerous. When cops leave the street to thugs, two things always happen. Those who are vulnerable prevaricate, while the others take the law into their own hands. In international politics, this means that those who are weak and vulnerable will come to terms with the new neighbourhood bullies — the Gulf principalities may seek accommodation with Iran, for example. But others will conclude that they have to fend for themselves. If America can't prevent a nuclear Iran, what's to stop Israel or Saudi Arabia ignoring America's pleas and acting unilaterally?
Nothing. And as its retreat from the role of global policeman allows the world to descend slowly into chaos, America will reap the whirlwind.
America has abandoned the Iranian people who clamoured for freedom in 2009; instead it is negotiating with their oppressors.
Barack Obama has told the world that Syria's brutish dictator, Bashar al-Assad, must go. Yet everybody knows that, as far as America is concerned, Assad will still be in office when Obama goes off to build his presidential library in 2017.
America has allowed Russia back into the Middle East, after successfully evicting the Soviet Union and keeping it at bay for four decades. It has handed Russia and Iran a victory in Syria by choosing not to fight. It appears to have done the same in the Black Sea, where multilateral diplomacy is no substitute for projecting superpower muscle. It will now preside over the dismemberment of Ukraine, content with sanctions and the occasional complaint that Russia needs "to de-escalate" and stop behaving in a 19th-century manner.
All this is disheartening and dangerous. When cops leave the street to thugs, two things always happen. Those who are vulnerable prevaricate, while the others take the law into their own hands. In international politics, this means that those who are weak and vulnerable will come to terms with the new neighbourhood bullies — the Gulf principalities may seek accommodation with Iran, for example. But others will conclude that they have to fend for themselves. If America can't prevent a nuclear Iran, what's to stop Israel or Saudi Arabia ignoring America's pleas and acting unilaterally?
Nothing. And as its retreat from the role of global policeman allows the world to descend slowly into chaos, America will reap the whirlwind.
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