America must stay the world’s leader

Published 8:21 pm Monday, September 30, 2013

Even as President Barack Obama’s ham-fisted approach to foreign policy — and his very words — suggest an end to the “American century,” European powers are displaying clear evidence they’re not ready to fill any power vacuum.

“Hordes of bankrupt French invade Switzerland to get their hands on their ‘stolen’ money — such is the imaginary scenario cooked up by the Swiss military in simulations revealed over the weekend,” the (London) Telegraph reports. “Carried out in August, the apparently outlandish army exercise was based on the premise of an attack by a financially stricken France split into warring regions, according to Matin Dimanche, the Lausanne-based daily. One of these, ‘Saônia,’ corresponding to the existing Jura region, was preparing attacks on Switzerland to retrieve money it had apparently swiped from France.”

That’s right — as Syria shuffles its chemical weapons around and Iran denies its irrefutable nuclear weapons program, the European militaries are wargaming raids by broke Frenchmen.

We can presume that due to Venezuela’s acute toilet paper shortage, the Swiss feel no need to wargame that South American nation sneaking over to “roll” the Federal Palace in Bern.

“This is by no means the first imaginary scenario dreamed up by the Swiss army,” the Telegraph notes. “Last year, it carried out an exercise based on the premise that a huge wave of refugees crossed into the country after the implosion of the European Single Currency and ensuing chaos across the continent.”

That’s not to downplay the real threat an ongoing financial crisis in Europe could eventually build into — but for now, such threats are unrealistic to the point of silly.

Meanwhile, Syria is busy hiding its stockpiles of chemical weapons.

“Last weekend, Bashar Assad’s government formally met its first deadline in the Russian-brokered plan to have Syrian chemical weapons turned over to international authorities,” National Review reports. “Just hours before the deadline, Damascus turned over a list of chemical weapons. That undoubtedly buys it points with the Obama administration, which was willing to delay the timing for this first stage. However, as foreign news outlets have reported, the list is far from complete, despite Secretary of State John Kerry’s much-touted demand that a full and comprehensive accounting be provided in just a week’s time.”

And the West is happily deluding itself about the real threat posed by Iran’s new leader.

“The prevailing narrative in the Western media regarding the new president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, is reminiscent of the optimistic assessment of Ayatollah Khomeini by the Jimmy Carter administration,” writes G. William Heiser and Amir Abbas Fakhravar for RealClearWorld.com. “President Carter’s ambassador to the U.N., Andrew Young, said that Khomeini will eventually be hailed as a saint; President Carter’s ambassador to Iran, William Sullivan, observed that Khomeini was a Gandhi-like figure.”

We now know the truth, of course.

The point here is that if the American Century is indeed over, the question remaining is who will fill the vacuum.

It’s clear that European powers won’t. They don’t recognize the threats on their doorstep.

Unless, of course, France invades Switzerland.