So how's Obama's "leading from behind" working for ya?

It's working fine for the rogues of the world.

North Korea just announced a new sub-launched ICBM, allowing it to send nuke-tipped missiles anywhere in the world.  As for the mullahs of Iran, they now control the strategic port of Aden, the chokepoint to the Red Sea, and they already have land-based anti-ship missiles to threaten oil traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.  When rusty Iranian naval ships wheel around and charge U.S. Navy vessels, our ships retreat.  When the mullahs steal a container ship under U.S. protection, we do nothing.  Every time ISIS posts another gruesome human butchery – with no punishment by civilized nations – teenage kids around the world discover their inner sociopath and yearn to join the bloodbath.

We are the Weak Horse, for sure.

Obama's Alinsky playbook says that the perception of power is more important than power itself.  That works for weakness, too.  Obama's endless parade of cringing retreats speaks louder than our actual military clout.  Power without the will to use it means nothing.

But now there's a shift in the wind.

Conservatives are winning elections – in the U.K., Australia, Canada, and Israel.  France's President Hollande is promising to help the Saudis and their allies, abandoned by Obama.  Norway has actually expelled thousands of Muslim criminals, followed by a "surprising" drop in the violent crime rate.

After the Charlie Hebdo massacres in Paris, fence-sitting European politicians actually tried to form a united front against barbaric jihad.  Had Obama chosen to join that movement by saying the magic words "the enemy is Muslim jihad," we would be seeing real unity today.  But our Weak Horse is leading from behind. Again.

Nobody quite understands why voters swing from right to left in an election, but it's a good bet that the Takers who expect government goodies swing to the left, while the Producers move to the right.  When the world is on fire, voters turn to masculine, assertive, conservative leaders.  They are more afraid of losing what they have than they are hungry for new freebies.

The world now looks more explosive than ever.  In Egypt, Obama tried to install a Muslim Brotherhood fascist as president, but the political elites rebelled and put President El Sisi in the presidency.  Today El Sisi is by far the most impressive spokesman for Muslims who don't want nuclear martyrdom for themselves or their children.  (Believe it or not, such Muslims do exist, by the millions.)

Obama sent his own operatives to elect the left in Israel, but when things look really dangerous, Israelis vote for solid mainstream conservatives.  As Americans do.

Today, the world is hungry for real leadership.

For sixty years, the U.S. president was the leader of the free world – not to boost our national ego, but to protect the things that civilized nations cherish most.  Europeans would routinely shout and holler at us, but in the end they knew who protected their safety, freedom, and prosperity.  By pulling the rug out from under our allies, Obama has confronted them with a reality the Europeans didn't want to see.  Now they see how vulnerable they are.

But the last two years of Obama may be even more dangerous.

The rogues are trying to consolidate their conquests (like the mullahs grabbing the strategic chokepoint of Yemen), and they will grab as much additional power and territory as possible, just in case we elect another Ronald Reagan in 2016.  The Iranians are now doing everything possible to push their power in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.  They are not waiting for Obama's foolish "peace agreement," which they will never keep anyway.  When the enemy looks weak, they grab what they can.  It's in their nature; it's even in their jihadist doctrine.

The Sunni Arab regimes have their own jihad gangs going under different names.  The labels are confusing, when we are actually seeing a fast-spreading regional war headed by Shi'ite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia.  Between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean the Middle East is aflame, with the saner nations trying to keep the war far away.

A fierce battle has broken out in the mountains of El Qalamoun near the borders of Syria, Lebanon, and Israel, where Iran and its proxies have been trying to break through.  For the time being, Israel is quietly helping the Sunnis, as despicable as they are.  If Sunni gangs look like they are winning, Israel may support the other side.  This was British policy for centuries: support the French when the Germans are rising, and vice versa – to keep any power from conquering all of Europe.

Watch for increasing danger in the next 20 months as Obama gets more desperate.  The world now understands Obama's surrender on nukes to be a pure kabuki play.  The nuclear horse has already left the barn, and our carnival barker is claiming a phony victory to cover up his real surrender.

No wonder the mullahs can't stop laughing. 

Yet the mullahs are in a hurry, because they have bad memories from Ronald Reagan's stunning defeat of Jimmy Carter in 1980.  As soon as Reagan was elected, Ayatollah Khomeini released his U.S. diplomatic hostages.  Reagan didn't have to bargain or beg.  When he was elected, the mullahs got the point, and they gave in to the Strong Horse.  They may be evil, but they are not stupid.

So when Obama called for a meeting last week of Arab Gulf nations at Camp David to explain his brilliant Weak Horse strategy, the Saudi king declined the invitation.  So did Kuwait and even Qatar, one of Obama's "best friends" in the Middle East.

In Japan, Prime Minister Abe is seriously rearming for the first time since World War 2.  Putin's invasion of the Crimea and Ukraine is forcing the French and Germans to finally get serious about Europe's defenses, along with Finland, the Baltic states, Norway, Sweden, and the Slavic countries.

When the United States retreats, the result is not peace.

It's just one explosion after another.