When I think about the story of man, I often shed a tear for the missed opportunities of history. What if the White Star Line had put in enough lifeboats? What if the driver for Archduke Franz Ferdinand had been more competent?
Missed chances . . .and history went sadly wrong. What if, imagine it if you can, we had a leader like President Obama, now thinking very hard about thinking very hard about making a decision in Afghanistan, at some of history’s pivot points.
The knowledge that such a complex man is at the helm in these complex times makes me wonder what would have happened if subtlety and nuance had been more widespread in human history.
The world could have been a much different place.
If Obama had been Pope at the time of the hasty Battle of Lepanto, we would not have worries about a divided Church today as an Islamic Europe would have dealt with Western Christians as a single second-class group.
Don Juan de Austria would have been ignored as a hot head and this blog would not exist.
If Obama had been King of Poland when the Turks invaded Europe, he would have noted that the causes for the war were complex. Vienna would have been part of the Ottoman Empire and avoided the degenerate influences of Mozart and waltzes.
If Obama had been Emperor of the Romans in 717, he would have worried that resistance at Constantinople to Islamic Arab expansion might bring on persecution of Arab Christian subjects of the Empire. He would have set up a commission to determine if the use of Greek fire was moral.
The sack of Byzantium would have hastened Islamic France by centuries avoiding much present political difficulty.
If Obama had been King of the Britons at the time of Arthur, he would have apologized to the barbarians for calling them barbarians. Though the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes would have stamped out Roman civilization decades faster, we would not have to mourn the fall of Camelot, because Camelot would not have existed.
If Obama had been President of the United States instead of Harry Truman, millions of Americans would not exist, because their grandfathers would have died invading Japan, but we would not have to apologize for doing with one bomb what we did to Germany with many bombs.
Obama for Truman is even better than you might think, as Obama would have studied the situation in Greece and Europe after World War II. He would have recognized the important work that national Communists did in liberating the nations and would have set up a commission to study our response.
We would not have the messy elections or the euro to cause us such pain if he had just ignored that hothead reflexive anticommunist Marshall.
Of course, Truman was a Democrat in Name Only.
If Obama had been President of the United States during the 1980’s, he would not have antagonized the Soviets with an arms build up and Eastern Europe would have fewer nations simplifying geography lessons for decades of American students.
The Berlin Wall would still stand thus keeping American leaders from being forced to the difficult decision not to attend anniversary celebrations for its fall, because they were busy doing other things.
Of course, not everything would be changed.
If Obama had been prime minister of Britain at Munich 1938, history might not have changed at all. We would still have had to fight and win World War II.
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