Chess and Marbles

 

 

"In the land of the blind, even a one eyed man can become king..."

Mike Rogers quotable quote from this weekend was "Putin is playing chess while Obama is playing marbles." I thought that summed up the current world situation nicely. To threaten the leader of Mother Russia is like a parent who does not believe in corporal punishment threatening to spank a child. Empty words.

My, oh my! How far we have fallen since Ronald Wilson Reagan was in charge! The "Gipper" was not cowed by Mikhail Gorbachev in the least. In fact, he was calling the Soviets out long before he became President. Even though the left leaning press LOVED Gorbachev, Reagan called a spade a spade. He called out the Soviets as "the evil empire". In turn, the Soviets respected and feared Reagan at the same time. We had peace through strength, complements of our 40th President. The Soviet empire dissolved because our President could play chess better than Gorbachev.

So what can we do to the Russian Bear when he starts to misbehave? Not much. The table has been set. We have weakened ourselves economically to the point where we are a debtor nation. Our friends don't trust us, and our advisories no longer fear us. In an ever more dangerous world, we have decided to pare down our military to a size most of us have not seen in our life time. "Peace through strength" has devolved into "Turmoil through weakness". The table is now set for something very, very bad to happen.

I told my wife last week there is irony. As bad as things are right now, economically, internationally, if our Constitution allowed a three term President, Obama would probably get re-elected. Why? Because many of us now believe in Santa Clause more than a strict parent who can enforce international rules. The Progressives have convinced us that life under Woodrow Wilson was Utopian. We no longer need to be a super power - that was so yesterday. We can just be a member of the League of Nations, a member of the team. Everybody is expected to get along and play fair. It is thinking like this which allowed Hitler to become Hitler.

So what will happen in the Ukraine and Crimea will happen. We will just be spectators. We can only hope and pray this naked aggression stops there. Some think this might be the beginning of the new Soviet Republic. A new world order. A new single super power. A new nightmare. God help us all if this is true.