No era has a monopoly on incompetent leadership. I suspect that Obama is even worse than Carter. Stalin reportedly turned down a plan to kill Hitler saying, “what if they replace him with somebody competent?” This is the reason I wouldn’t have authorized killing Osama bin Laden. Wars, like accidents, are generally caused by a series of mistakes.
One thing that has never caused a war is being prepared to fight one. I suspect we are weaker now than at any time since Clinton left office. (On his last day half of the Air Force and Navy planes could not fly for lack of a critical system. Spares had not been bought for about seven years.)
As much as I dislike Roosevelt for his economic policies and deceit, he did prepare the U.S.A. for war. He secretly brought war mobilization committees and policies under White House control, and massively built up our military prior to WWII while he destabilized Germany and Japan by blocking resources. In the two years before Pearl Harbor, he spent far more for the Army than all our military costs for both Army and Navy in WWI. He poured many billions into building up the military.
Roosevelt wanted war, despite claiming otherwise, and was happy the Japanese took the bait to attack Pearl Harbor. (Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson,wrote in his diary after a meeting of the war cabinet on November 25 1941, “The question was how we should maneuver them [the Japanese] into firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves.” After the attack, Stimson confessed that “my first feeling was of relief ... that a crisis had come in a way which would unite all our people.") Roosevelt didn't cause the war, but he didn't prevent it either, but he was smart enough to prepare for it.
Unlike Obama, who is destroying our ability to fight another war - that's big incompetence. To survive, we need to replace Obama before war breaks out.