The Stumbling Titan

"In recent years, the world has picked up unmistakable signals that Americans may no longer want to carry the burden of global responsibility."
"When Vladimir Putin failed to achieve his goals in Ukraine through political and economic means, he turned to force, because he believed that he could."
Robert Kagan, American historian

"I would argue that given conditions in the Middle East, this might be more dangerous than any time in the past. The United States' influence has never been less than it is today. And we're seeing the results of that."
U.S. Republican Senator John McCain

"[Retrenchment presidents] are basically brought in by the American people to mop up a mess and the American people overwhelmingly re-elect them, but then, questions arise, once they are disengaged from the mess of the past, as to what the policy is supposed to be going forward."
"And here's what is important about retrenchment presidencies: They end."
"We are seeing the start of a debate which is going to continue through the next presidential election. One of the parties is probably going to be more interventionist and the other is going to be more in favour of disengagement. We just don't know which one is going to be which yet."
Stephen Sestanovich, senior fellow, Russian and Eurasian Studies, Council on Foreign Relations

Mr. Sestanovich recently published his view on retrenchment presidents rather than interventionist versus isolationist presidencies, titled Maximalist: America in the World from Truman to Obama. He takes issue with Mr. Kagan's The New Republic piece titled Superpowers Don't Get to Retire, arguing that "the American world order" has traditionally been responsible for settling strife around the world, and in so doing preventing chaos from replacing a modicum of order.

No one can deny that an imperfect storm of odious proportions has lately assailed the world. From regimes like that of the Islamic Republic of Iran, to its collegial equally troublesome partner North Korea revelling in nuclear and rocketry gains giving the international community a gigantic headache; to the collapse of regimes in the Middle East and North Africa with oppressed populations thinking they can overturn their tyrannical regimes and hope for the best, only to be radically disappointed.

President Barack Obama pauses while speaking about the situation in Ukraine, Friday, July 18, 2014, in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House

Conflict has emerged in blazing colours of bloodshed and violence upending a previous relative calm that appeared to lull the entire world into a sense of complacency. From Sudan to Somalia, Central African Republic to Chad and Algeria, from Tunisia to Libya, Egypt to Syria, Iraq to Iran, throwing in North Korea and Venezuela for good measure, rationality has finally dwindled to the point of full departure, allowing the vacuum to be filled with the gruesome spectre of Death Triumphant.

There is only conjecture, and likely musings about 'what-if', among those in the international community wondering what went wrong, when it did, and why it did to this extent. Mr. Obama's high-flown, mellifluous rhetoric that so rhapsodized the mood of the American public that they set aside generations of bigotry to bring this radiant man to the White House rather than staid John McCain, and later Mitt Romney, has brought America and the world to this frightening place.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has finally swapped a bitter truce for outright war, with the West looking on aghast, forgetting for the moment the slaughter in Syria and Iraq, the ongoing suicide murders in Afghanistan, Libya, and bitter enmity between two nuclear belligerents, Pakistan and India. Among all the world's belligerents, Israel is held to a higher order of response while representing the only nation in the world to continue defending itself from determined obliteration.

The country has relied on its traditional convention of trusting the United States to continue mentoring its neighbours to be nice lest Israel's patron saint be irritated. It has taken both Israel and America's favourite among the Middle East potentate nations, Saudi Arabia, a little prodding of surprised disappointment to view the reality of their position as abandoned favourites in a hostile world order. 

Russia's Vladimir Putin must have been beside himself with glee when he realized how malleable his American counterpart could be. Amenable to the prospect of reason and the avoidance of unpleasant situations. It was fine to warn that certain issues are beyond the pale of acceptance and red lines would prevent their full use, but when chemical weapons were used by Bashar al-Assad against his Sunni civilian population, Putin's devil whispered caution into Obama's angelic ear and he was convinced that it was he who should stand down, not the Syrian regime.

If President Putin needed any greater reassurance that he could manipulate Barack Obama, the sanctions against Iran presented him with the opportunity to yet again convince America that diplomacy was always preferable to conflict, throwing a lifeline to Iran's nuclear program, while placating the pacifist that beats steadily in the heart and mind of a Nobel Laureate celebrated for his vision of a peaceful world.

That peaceful world continues to evade reality, with Mr. Putin and the Kremlin now fully assured that regardless of any belligerent interference in the stability of another country they might undertake, they were entitled to it, in the assurance that there was no longer any world power willing to challenge their premise that might is always right, as long as it's theirs.

According to a Canada Research Chair in U.S. Government and Politics at the University of British Columbia, Colin Campbell, President Obama saw the need to focus entirely on domestic problems during his first term of office; that verbal high-flown gestures of friendly affirmations from America to its erstwhile critics would suffice to maintain order.

"And now that he's looking at the world more broadly, as he has the liberty to do it, he's found a heck of a lot more chaos than he could have ever imagined. It's possible that it will swamp him." He looks swamped, he appears resigned, he still lectures his audience but the words come more slowly, they are more carefully selected from a part of Mr. Obama's vocabulary he is unaccustomed to voicing.

The assurances sound less than reliable, and they are.