Unprecedented retreat

Here's the lead sentence from a story on Breitbart today:

• NASA announced Tuesday that it signed a contract with the Russian space agency to shuttle US astronauts to the orbiting International Space Station.

And here's the lead from a story linked on Drudge:

• CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez offered Wednesday to help Uruguay expand a refinery and supply it with crude oil. Chavez and visiting Uruguayan President Jose Mujica are expected to sign accords pledging to deepen trade and energy ties between the two South American nations.

You've seen the stories about the Nuclear Posture Review (The politicization of this process itself is scandalous and dangerous, but that's another matter)

And the stories about Putin offering Ahmedinejad and the Iranians pretty vast support for their nuclear enterprise and ramped up military support.

And the stories about sabotaging Israel. And sandbagging Karzai.

All of these - from space, to our own hemisphere, to our strategic deterrent, to our humiliation of our allies, to our impotence in the face of Russian/Iranian provocation - all of these tell a tale of American retreat from global leadership that is unprecedented. Our weakness is provocative. The rational response of our longtime friends will be to make their own security arrangements; what choice do they have? The response of our enemies will be to become emboldened to be more adventuresome. And our response will be . . . what? To apologize?

I don't think the left has a clue as to how vital US strength is to the global order. In its absence, we'll see the realization of Yeats' warning: "Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world."