Muddled creatures, thinking they hold power in their hands, men learn they don’t.

Hamas charged into Israel, slaughtered Israelites – Biden said he backed Israel 100%. Got cheers. Next protests erupted howling as Israel bombed Gaza. Those protestors didn’t represent many voters but, running neck ‘n neck against Trump, losing just a fraction of voters could cost Biden a swing state like Michigan.

Stepping back, during his State of the Union speech, Biden threw the Pentagon a surprise – said he was going to build a pier in Gaza to get food to hungry families. He sounded kind but it wasn’t just kindness: Building a pier gave him a way to put smiles on protestors’ faces.

The army scrambled, built a $230 million pier, towed it to Gaza’s coast.

A week later the pier broke apart into pieces. The army towed it to Israel, put it back together, towed it back to Gaza.

A week later, breaking apart again, the army towed the pier back to Israel. In the end Biden’s pier didn’t cure a single problem: Food didn’t roll into Gaza. And Biden’s fig leaf broke apart.

Even worse, pouring fuel on fires, the broken pier showed our weakness: Putin stepped up his war in Ukraine, war rolled on in the Middle East – with Iran firing missiles into Israel, sinking ships in the Red Sea. And, stoking its own arsenal, China’s building a new brand of nuclear weapons. Now we’ve got three confident dictators, smiling, sure America’s days as the world’s dominant power are coming to an end.