Well President made it to Israel, sniffed  the air in the West Bank and spent some time trying rot avoid doing much of anything, which BTW he does very well.  Thje Israelis, having a dysfunctional government   off their own now , and are well versed in the vagaries of American politics, so they know that Biden was simply to be feted and  allowed a perfunctory  nod to Palestinian demands …whatever one decides they are…..  and sent on his way. Nothing accomplished but no real harm done. It was in the Arabian peninsula that real harm to American interests occurred. For this reason; In the Arab world, leaders personify their country. The local despot is the country., For example. I once had. young lady professor come to. my class and she made the statement that Saddam is Iraq. Break Saddam and Iraq breaks up…which is exactly what happened. Same in Libya. Qaddafi went down and Libya fractured. Across the Middle East with very few, if any, exceptions when the ruler goes down the country rents itself apart. The Arab world has always been ruled by despots, some brilliant, some incompetent, but all hard nosed and suspicious men.   To some degree they all rule by fear.  As the professor said…Saddam is Iraq.  al Sisi is Egypt, MbS is Saudi Arabia. The same families  have ruled the Gulf states for hundreds of years. The Hashemites  rule Jordan. When papa Assad died, junior could not control  Syria and  were it not for  Putin’s intervention Junior Assad would be back in London checking eyes –or dead.

The German conquest of Rome “

So what do you think the impression of these tough hardened rulers are when  they had personal  face to face contact with President Biden? In their mind Biden is America. Q.E.D. American is weak. Despite that fact that tons of smart young Arabs have advanced degrees from Ivy league colleges, they still think that way. The fist bump, an adolescent gesture at best, is only one small part  of the contempt many hold us in. And holding the Ukrainian coat until they fight to the last Ukrainian has not covered us with glory either, especially coming on the heels of the Kabul debacle.  While manliness in the West has become a politically incorrect trait, evoking elitist cynicism,  it has not among our enemies. As  the   history lesson of uncouth barbarians butchering the effete, sophisticated  Romans, one can only hope intelligent life once more sprouts in the Western world led by a morally rearmed America.

Party time in Rome

But Biden is not America, despite the fact that a discouraging number of  the “unawake,” may think so. Our centralized country of many diffuse centers of power thankfully have …so far… prevented that. So far, despite the fact that the elitist  ruling class in Washington, would like us to accept the  soft despotism of  many European countries, our federation of states and counties, all with their own governments have prevented this…so far.

What me worry?