The Pax Romana existed from circa 27 BC to circa 180 AD when Rome controlled most of the Mediterranean and large parts of the eastern Atlantic Ocean. Because Rome was such a strong presence, it prevented regional warfare. If you liked Roman rule, it was a peaceful time.

The Pax Americana existed from 1945 until 2021 when America was the world’s strongest nation. There were regional wars but, for the most part, American pressure kept them from escalating into nuclear chaos or complete regional collapse. 9/11 shook that system, Obama’s “leading from behind” weakened it, and the Harris-Biden administration destroyed it. We now tremble on the brink.

Image by Andrea Widburg using AI.

As astute observers at this site (e.g., here and here) have noticed practically from the beginning of the Harris-Biden administration, Joe Biden, the titular leader of America, was rapidly descending into senility. It doesn’t take Shakespeare’s King Lear to demonstrate that a weak, aged ruler, let alone a demented one, is an invitation to disaster on an epic scale. Actual history bears that out. See, for example, France under Charles VI, who thought he was made of glass, and England under Henry VI, Charles VI’s grandson, who went from being an infant king to an insane one. Their weaknesses contributed to the horror of the Hundred Years War.

Currently, the day’s news keeps making me think of the Kingston Trio’s classic The Merry Little Minuet:

They’re rioting in Africa. They’re starving in Spain.

There’s hurricanes in Florida and Texas needs rain.

The whole world is festering with unhappy souls.

The French hate the Germans. The Germans hate the Poles.

Italians hate Yugoslavs. South Africans hate the Dutch.

And I don’t like anybody very much!

But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud

For man’s been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud.

And we know for certain that some lovely day

Someone will set the spark off and we will all be blown away.

They’re rioting in Africa. There’s strife in Iran.

What nature doesn’t do to us will be done by our fellow man.

It’s a cute song, but it’s not so cute in real life. In the world under Kamala Harris and Joe Biden:

• There’s rioting in England
• Iran is threatening to destroy Israel, and, thanks to Biden’s refusal to back Israel in its war against Iranian terror proxies (Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis), Iran may really launch a massive strike. Israel is planning a preemptive strike
• Turkey is threatening war against Israel
• Israel may be facing a two-front war because Hezbollah has been firing daily missiles at it non-stop for almost a year (something the world media ignore), which is intolerable
• The Ukraine-Russia war is halfway through its third year, and Ukraine now has F-16 fighter jets
• China is waiting for a little bit more American weakness to strike Taiwan
• Deadly riots just drove out Bangladesh’s prime minister
• The American and Asian stock markets are in trouble
• America’s commercial real estate market and the labor market are also in trouble

Oh, and did I mention that North Korea has moved nuclear-capable missiles right up to the South Korean border?

North Korea is sending hundreds of nuclear-capable weapons to its border as it refuses to ramp down tensions with the U.S. and the West, state media reported on Monday.

The weapons — 250 tactical ballistic missile launchers — are being delivered to southern North Korea along South Korea’s border, according to KCNA Watch. A ceremony featuring North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un was held on Sunday to celebrate the delivery of the missile launchers.

When America is weak, unstable countries collapse, and strong, hostile countries flex their muscles. We had no wars, and the world was stable under Trump. Since Kamala and Joe entered the White House, everything is going to hell in a handbasket.

The really sad thing is that this is what the left wants. They want a weak America because she must pay for her historic sins. And if that means that the world burns, so be it.

(This fall, vote as if your life depends on it because it really may.)