Collapse of the Roman Empire. Once Rome could no longer enforce its rule or even be the symbolic unifying reference for the many cultures that it influenced, human civilization as a whole regressed. This affected not only in its technological and even artistic skills, but certain social concepts and ideas of governance. It also led to an increasing break-down and reduction of the size of governing units so that the counter-productive situation of a multiplicity of warring kings revived.
The Church was somewhat successful in Europe in attempting to fill this cultural gap and provide both unity and a trans-national view which kept established societies from reverting back into warring tribes, but one of the reasons Islam was so successful in the Middle East was that the unity of the Church had been weakened by various theological disputes and, in addition, Constantinople had never had the organizational power of Rome. This left Middle Eastern societies very vulnerable, and when the crazed Arab would-be dictator Mohammed thought up his scam, not only were the countries militarily weak, but they had no cohesiveness among them and could neither aid one another nor provide a solid, unified counterweight to Islam. Once it took over, it provided them with a framework to see themselves as something other than warring kingdoms and for awhile provided some stability and unity in the Middle East and other places to which it extended itself towards the East.
One of the reasons it was rejected in the West was that enough of a trace remained of Romanitas and, in addition, the Church was strong enough to provide the societies with a counterweight.
Spain, the only country briefly conquered by Islam, was taken largely unawares because Islam was only about 50 years old and most people had little idea of what it was. Spain was also plagued by warring kings, and had some religious disunity because the invading Visigoths had initially been Arians and not orthodox Christians in union with Rome. By the time of the Islamic invasions, the Visigothic rulers had converted, but the wars among them had not yet subsided. But resistance to Islam began very rapidly. While it took 700 years to get all the Muslim rulers out of Spain, in practice large parts had been recaptured by Christians within only a couple of hundred years, and the fight continued to push south, being halted a couple of times when fresh contingents of North African Muslims attacked Spain but resuming as soon as possible.
Obama is, of course, radically opposed to Western values (Greco-Roman Judeo-Christian) and Western society, and all of his actions express his contempt for it and his desire to destroy it. And into that vacuum is going to come...what?
I understand that India is well on its way to attaining a world-class navy, including Indian-built nuclear subs, aircraft carriers, and all the rest. I'm not any expert on military technology, but I know geography, and the only way China could threaten India would be by lobbing IBMs over the Himalayas. So if India can build a good anti-missile defense system, it would be very difficult for China launch a serious attack.
As for Pakistan, its gov't is disorganized, though some elements support Muslim insurgents to nip at her flanks and carry out the bombings we have all read about. But as for a serious threat, Pakistan has somewhere between 6 and 12 nuclear warhead, that's it. OTOH, India possesses hundreds, and also produces some of the world's smartest physicists and mathematicians. Pakistan couldn't win, and probably wouldn't dare initiate, a nuclear war with India.
I believe India is being prudent in its defense strategy, I support it, and I would like to see closer military and economic ties with India (now that they are not officially socialist).
the dark shadow could be cast over us, too... unless we give it light.