41 will be missed

George H.W. Bush, our 41st president who died last week, was a great American. Although I didn't vote for him, he was a strong president too. 

A WW2 hero, he was the youngest combat pilot in the Pacific War, who crashed in action and everyone in his crew died but him. Live with that all your life. 

As I reflected on his life, I came to a startling conclusion that he was the last president to project typical American power throughout the world by presiding over the end of the Cold War when the Berlin Wall came down and assembling a coalition to throw Iraq out of Kuwait. He wisely ended the 100-hour war after he destroyed the Iraqi army but before he irrevocably disrupted the fragile status-quo in the Mideast that carried with it an uneasy peace. 

Shockingly, we have been in decline internationally since then for the last 26 years. Clinton foolishly didn't support his Somali mission with armor, whether it was used or not, and when it was desperately needed it wasn't there, and he allowed fatal mission creep.  Dubya Bush was a reckless novice ("Bring 'em on!" " Mission accomplished!"). Obama was weak in allowing his redlines to be crossed and not following up his warning to Putin to stop meddling in our 2016 election with deliverables. Trump is a hopeless, dangerous dotard (I love Kim! You can sleep well at night because I fixed the N. Korean nuclear threat!). None of these served (Dubya was in the National Guard but he was mysteriously AWOL for much of his stateside tour). 

The generation of presidents forged in the crucible of participation in world war (Truman, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Bush 41) were respected or at least feared internationally and kept America strong (great). Carter was weak (he should have sent one more helicopter on the abortive Teheran-rescue mission) but he was a one-termer. 

James Polk and George H.W. Bush will be one seen in history as the best one-term presidents. Can America come back from 28 years of steady international decline once Trump is voted or thrown out in 2020?  I hope so!

American military strategists project and plan for our next big war to be with China, in the 2020s. How will we fare, especially if Russia joins in and creates a second front for us?  We have been busy shedding allies under our current president, either deliberately or through insult, like Germany, Japan, S. Korea, Poland, France, the UK, Australia, and Canada, terming them deadbeats who don't pay us. These nations will seek strength through their own coalitions or militarization, perhaps even becoming potential adversaries to us. Will we have to go it alone the next time?