Regardless of who or what you hold responsible for the current American political situation, America’s position in the world has been compromised.

Four years of rising respect and strength around the globe has been thrown away in the last week or so. Be it from the rabid rabble of the Trump right or the socialist enabling media and Democrats, from Caracas to Tehran the cackling has been nonstop.

There has even been confusion at the National Command Authority level, as JCS Chairman Mark Milley had to give personal assurances to lawmakers that the armed forces would not intervene in any political situation. When individuals like former General Mike Flynn called for military run elections and martial law, the situation grew more tense, as some compared it to the possibility of a scenario like the Algerian Revolt or the alleged Mountbatten Coup.

In the former, in April 1961, French paratroopers stationed in Algeria felt sold out by a peace agreement with the Algerian rebels they had been fighting. The paratroopers threatened to jump into Paris and take over the government. They were dissuaded by former general and then French President Charles DeGaulle. It’s as if the 101 Air Cav would have felt betrayed by the 1973 Paris Peace talks and thought about swooping into DC to oust Nixon.

In the latter, in 1968 royal cousin and former UK chief of the defence staff Lord Louis Mountbatten, allegedly in league with media and banking interests, talked about overthrowing the elected British government of Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson. The move on Mountbatten’s part was odd, as he had always been thought to be a Labour supporter and thus friendly to the Labour government. But then Labour made him retire from the top defence post and he changed his mind accordingly. Mountbatten initially refused to be involved with the cabal. But the plotters played to his ego and he started making plans until Wilson found out. He told the Queen. She brought Mountbatten in and put a stop to it. The rumors, counterrumors, and gossip about this event further damaged Britain’s already eroding international position. Thus, no matter what the scenario is, instability encourages aggression.

Ergo, the Chinese are watching us right now and wondering what they can get away with in Asia. The Iranians are doing the same in the Middle East. The Venezuelans are surveying their options in the Americas. The Russians are readying their keyboards. And we have the Biden administration to look forward to.

We’re likely to have the worst of all national security worlds with Biden. He’ll denude the armed forces and then, feeling political heat for a weak military, try to compensate by playing tough guy somewhere with the same force he has crippled. Thus we may go from this frying pan to that fryer. Not a pleasant prognosis.