I've witnessed this over my 84 years and understood the truth of this article for decades. The downfall of Pax Americanus will result in far more suffering than the downfall of Pax Romanus in 378 AD because the world is now far more crowded and available resources are fast dwindling. I'm glad my time is nearing the end. God help the idiots in power who cant see this, and take mercy on the innocents who will pay the price.

You're right, TexanForever. However, I feel the worst for you and my parents, who are both 80. The Greatest Generation. You've seen unprecedented prosperity, innovation and unity in our country, only to see it all destroyed by people who hate it, and have never understood or appreciated it.

Stick around for a while Tex. Coming from a New Yorker, I say we need more Texans in this country.

Tex, the only thing I disagree with is "God help the idiots in power that can't see this". They see it pal. They see it and know it and are causing it. Think about it. They ride the wave into the New World Order and the chances of them remaining part of the "ruling class" increases exponentially. If we the people prevail, they are gone!!! America is in dire need of an enema.

Well put and the sentiments of many.

Amen Brother

Very, very well said TF. Read "The Dispossed Majority" to see what really ails this ex-land of yours.

The 3rd 4th and 5th centuries in Europe were than anything someone has experienced in modern times. Hyperinflation followed by economic collapse followed by political chaos followed by plague.

We need a summit of great conservative thinkers - VDH, Krauthamer, David Horowitz, Mark Levin and others to put forth a plan/roadmap out of the present mess and back to prosperity, for the clueless folks on Capitol Hill

Mark Levin : The Liberty Amendments. Read it. Learn it. Love it.

Yes we do

Unless it involves a coup d'etat, I don't see how having a roadmap would do any good. Americans either love what Obama is doing, or are more focused on the Kardashians.

And a convention of the states.

Now PLEASE!

Oh yeah!

Appreciate and agree with your comment - you said it best " ........need is a willing coalition of the Republican party to stand and offer some simple proposals....." emphasis on the last two words

You don't know what you've got 'till it's gone. Obama was raised on virulent anti-colonialism & anti-US propaganda, his mentor a Communist Party poet & petty publisher, and his adult spiritual leader an anti-white demagogue. As far as he's concerned we are the 'Great Satan' and he's now the special fellow of the correct skin color who can quietly take us down a few notches. Unfortunately the people of the world have depended on our sometimes unreflective national commitment to world order, trade, territorial integrity, and a sense of justice for weaker nations next door to stronger ones. Giving that up will unleash forces no one can control. Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.

I find it fascinating that even here, there are commenters talking about "incompetence", lack of knowledge of history, no idea about foreign policy, etc.

That Americans still think this is puzzling. This is all by design. This man is WELL aware of what he is doing. He wears the cloak of the bumbling buffoon to deflect his actual agenda which is the dissolution of any semblance of power the Republic once had. This has been the plan since inception.

You nailed it...his "real" plan is working and must be stopped, maybe the spineless ones in Congress will wake up to reality (am afraid that's not going to happen)

We have some whirlwind for him but for the Rinos.

VDH nails it, again. Could Ubama not have found even ONE person to staff his administration with such clear-headed reasoning and understanding of geopolitical reality? Instead we get Clinton, Kerry, Rice, Jarett, Donilon, Rhodes, Vietor, Plouffe, Axelrod... perfect compliments to his domestic policy yes-men apparatchiks.

Their ideas have stood the test of time in faculty lounges around this great country.

I think that Mark Steyn -- or, "Steyn the Magnificent," as I call him -- put it more succinctly; to roughly quote him, "Sweden can be Sweden and Belgium can be Belgium because America is America. Now, America wants to be Sweden. We'll see how that works out."

Our main problem now is we are 3 generations away from WW1&2 and our kids and grand kids don't appreciate the sacrifices that generation made to create a safe world for this now spoiled, selfish generation. It is apparent everywhere you go, not just the US. History is often repeated because of that. Obama is one of those pampered left-wing hippies who will never truly understand how the world really functions. He is far from understanding the average middle-income wage earning tax-payer. Our best hope is to send his kind back to the unemployment line just as he has done to many of us the last 6 years.

Obama hasn't the first clue about history. God help us all.

Charlie Rangel said last night that god sent us Obama , I guess we are now being punished for our sins.

Obama is doing exactly what he said he was going to do and this is the hope and change that people bought into back in 2008. But, the irony is that people bought it again and now it's clear what devastation occurs when you put incompetent liberals in chage of the economy, the military and the government. Just look at the education sysytem as an example, kids graduating from college and can't read and write, kids dropping out of high school like flies. Everything they touch tarnishes, yet the people still vote them in, go figure.

And the GOP sits there with their dunce caps on.

Sadly, no one appears to care about any "dividends." In the same way they can rail about how "great" things would be had the "liar and warmonger" W not invaded Iraq, they put NO consideration into what it would be had he not. The historical accuracy of this essay pales in comparison to the rewrites as understood and believed by too many people. "There's a better way," and "intelligent" and ""smart"" way to diplomacy and "U.S. peace (it sure woundn't/won't be world peace)," according to those that consider their opinions "enlightened" as compared to those that blood-thirstily observe the historical record.

Instead, we have a president with an understanding of history based upon a Zinn, Ayers, Wright, (and as he Dreams, his) father, etc. Present Obama's historical bubble is an alternate record layered upon with additional historical inaccuracies consisting of their own rewritten inaccuracies. At this point they don't realize that they don't know where the truth begins and ends. Hence, we get an imaginary "leader," who used the same methods of rewriting to create himself; something not possible without the assistance of the incurious and fawning media (they were taught their "history" in our universities).

We will probably never appreciate all the sacrifice that has taken place in this nations history again. What will happen "again" is that we will be hit. If at that time we choose to not sit idly by as we are now and take it to the enemy again, it will be by far, uglier and more deadly than I think anything we could imagine.

The right/conservatives failed to recognize one blaring reality that the left/democrats did. That the American public is just not very bright. For example in 2012 I don't think Romney ever thought for one minute the public would fall for the fake 'war on women' card being played, but...they did. At least, the right people did. White females. We sit here in amazement at how this happens. One day, I decided to talk to my neighbor about politics. He was an Obama supporter and had a sign in his yard. I never talked to him about current events or politics before and let me tell you that was a short conversation. We live not 200 miles where thousands of 'undocumented' children are coming over the border in nothing short of a humanitarian crises. Many of them housed at an old AFB not 30 miles from us. He was totally unaware of any of this. Never heard about it. I don't know how you fix that. You can't MAKE people 'curious' about the world around them. It's very discouraging.

"Americans did not fully appreciate the costly postwar global order that
the United States had established over the last seventy years."

And how could it with a dysfunctional media, dysfunctional schools, dysfunctional people with the attention span of a nat, dysfunctional federal government, total ignorance of history, etc. Force multiplied by greed, corruption, loss of faith. Divided by control-freaks. What is unfolding is the destruction in real-time. And the sheeple will be shorn...

The UN is an empty shell with out the US leadership. Not that it was a well honed machine, but at least it would address conflicts.
Now there are so many conflicts that the UN is left to manipulate weather predictions.

Obama is in over his head deeper than those lost souls that never made it off the Titanic. He can't meet with his cabinet because they are all smarter than he is. The reason he appears aloof is because he doesn't know what the hell they're all discussing!

When Obama was a 'Constitutional Lecturer' at Univ of Chicago there were regular monthly lunches in his department where they would a person would lead a discussion about his primary subject. Obama never showed up for any of these meetings. One professor said that they felt like he was avoiding it because he didn't want to be exposed as not having much to say.

I'm sure this is all lost on our current administration. As Obama causes us to fade into the din global anarchy will ensue until the totalitarians emerge to fill the void.

I would add that, amid the global anarchy, people will beg for order, which will give totalitarians the opportunity to emerge.

I don't think it's "lost" on the current administration, I just don't think Obama cares about international politics. He cares about "transforming" America into his socialist, marxist vision. World affairs just get in the way, and are only useful to him if they somehow benefit him politically (capturing bin Laden, etc.). The fact that America is losing it's influence (and consequent ability to affect positive outcomes), is either of no concern, or a side benefit in his plan to remake the US.

Excellent content Mr. Hanson. Thank you.

Make no mistake - today's quasi-religious ideology liberalism seeks the destruction of the current order for the purpose of rebuilding an order of consciously designed "fairness" and "equality".

Obama has helped and funded our enemies and is allowing the invasion of illegals on American soil. We are now the laughing stock around the globe, no longer feared or respected. Obama must be stopped!

Obama was hand selected by some very shady people, in order to create havoc in America, as well as the rest of the world. The MSM has carried the water.

If there is an author going, including Krauthammer, who understands the nuances of history, has clearer vision of present danger, and has proven prescient the last decade, I haven't read him.

Mr. Hanson, you're an American treasure...

One of the best written articles I have read in a long time. Bravo V. D. Hanson.

Caligula raised an Army to invade Germany by forcing the daughters of Roman elites to work as prostitutes. But instead of crossing the Rhine, he suddenly declares war against Neptune (the god of Oceans and a force of nature). In short his troops never even left Italy, launching attacks against waves along the coast. Today Obama talks of the threat of global warming (our modern Dragon of total destruction) while Putin uses force to grab peoples and territory, ISIS begins a major middle Eastern war, and China looks to seize the western Pacific. How Caligula's spirit must be so pleased.

Well that was just a howitzer of truth being shot out of the proverbial cannon. Well said. Unfortunately, we are at the twilight of the Pax Americana because enough people who are in some levers of highest national power have interpreted national strength as imperialism that must be punished and shed like dead skin. Instead of learning to navigate and thread the needle of involvement/non-involvement in various international areas - and the subtleties of expressed strength & power in confrontational moments - we have a group that sees only outright-war/peace-at-all-costs as the only two options on the table. So we hate the one and seek the other, to the detriment of all.

Obama called an emergency meeting today with his cabinet and with leading democrats in the house and senate to deal with Iraq. Obama blamed Rush Limbaugh, Biden blamed a lack of gun control, Kerry blamed global warming, Reid blamed to Koch brothers and a cattle rancher in Nevada, Pelosi blamed Fox News, Schumer blamed the tea party. Boxer blamed rich Republicans for not wanting to pay higher taxes, Durbin blamed the NRA, Holder blamed racism, Mooochelle blamed childhood obesity.

The best way to dilute the US's influence is to make us as unreliable a partner as possible, so our allies have to look to their own resources or find other more reliable partners. Sadly, it's all playing out according to Dinesh D'Sousa's understanding of Obama as wanting the US off the world stage (which he believes stems from his Kenyan father's animus against the British Empire).

At some point, everyone will realize Obama is doing this on purpose. I hope the realization doesn't require a mushroom cloud over New York...

Obama is the most dangerous man in the world.

VDH, Thanks for the difficult and truthful article. I tend towards pessimisim myself, but no such luxury is affordable now. As a nation we must change ourselves so we can help the world avoid apocalypse.