So how bad are things on the international front? The Washington Post gives us a great view:

From deteriorating security in Afghanistan and Somalia to mayhem in the Middle East, confrontation with Iran and eroding relations with Russia, the White House suddenly sees crisis in every direction.

North Korea’s long-range missile test Tuesday, although unsuccessful, was another reminder of the bleak foreign policy landscape that faces President Bush even outside of Iraq. Few foreign policy experts foresee the reclusive Stalinist state giving up the nuclear weapons it appears to have acquired, making it another in a long list of world problems that threaten to cloud the closing years of the Bush administration, according to foreign policy experts in both parties.

“I am hard-pressed to think of any other moment in modern times where there have been so many challenges facing this country simultaneously,” said Richard N. Haass, a former senior Bush administration official who heads the Council on Foreign Relations. “The danger is that Mr. Bush will hand over a White House to a successor that will face a far messier world, with far fewer resources left to cope with it.”

Yes and whoever that President is will have to deal with this and with a budget that is out of control and other messes Bush has made (ie. FEMA). This is what happens when you get someone who would rather play President then be presidential. Bush has the most dangerous of egos – thinking he is right on everything. That ego has cost America more then it will ever know.