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Once again, a dosage of reality is needed to properly assess the real effect that Barack Obama is having on America's standing among the nations of the world. And as usual, the truth is far less glowing than the liberal media enclave would have us believe.

Americans are incessantly told that those other nations are currently much happier with it and feel less threatened by it under the headship of an avowed leftist like Obama. While such an appraisal is quite believable, it does not follow that this translates into an elevated respect from those nations. In fact, the historical truth is completely to the contrary. America and its leaders ignore this to the imminent peril of the nation.

When all of the platitudes of burgeoning "international good will" are stripped away, nations ultimately function as competitors. Few cases of genuine international altruism exist, and the overwhelming majority of international relations are pursued by each nation from the perspective of its own best interests.

A fiscally and diplomatically weak but sustainable America poses the least risk of exerting influence on other nations, and is thus much more appealing to them than when it is strong and purposeful. Under the Obama Administration, America has lost significant sway with the rest of the world, which is just fine with every foreign entity that seeks to gain dominance and power. As long as the United States, with its rampant consumerism, can continue to enable the world's economic engine on terms dictated by the other nations, they can reap monetary benefits from it while ignoring and even deriding its values and interests.

However, this cycle cannot continue indefinitely. During every previous period in which the United States retreated into such a weak and vulnerable position, its enemies eventually recognized the moment as their opportunity to strike a blow against this nation. And that pattern is currently being repeated with disturbing predictability.

From the earliest days of Jimmy Carter's single 1977-1981 term as president, it became glaringly obvious that the criminally naive Georgia peanut farmer, despite having served as Governor, was completely lacking in the necessary moral and philosophical convictions or spine to stand against any foreign adversary. Carter backed down in the face of Soviet expansionism in Cuba and at one time or another had pandered to virtually every dictatorial regime on the planet.

As a result, Iran's Islamist "revolutionaries," spoiling for an opportunity to saber rattle in front of the world on the heels of their ouster of the Shah, were emboldened to attack the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in November of 1979, holding its staff as hostages for well over a year and humiliating this nation for the impotence of its responses the entire time.

Likewise, though the 9-11 attacks were carried out in the early days of the George Bush Administration, plans for the event were formulated during the tenure of President Bill Clinton. And, as a telling precursor, bin Laden pulled off several smaller but escalating assaults throughout the 1990s. Clinton's deplorable and embarrassing conduct as Chief Executive, along with the dangerously reckless games he openly allowed cabinet appointees and their underlings to play with America's security, created a "window of opportunity" that enticed America's enemies to strike.

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