No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment. H.G. Wells THE WAR OF THE WORLDS

To paraphrase Wells: across our own world, intellects ambitious and cool and unsympathetic, regard our nation with envious eyes, and slowly and surely draw their plans against us.

Their focus is on the President of the United States. Ruthless and ambitious men know the U.S. possesses great military and economic power. The question is whether or not we have the will to use it. And that question comes down to whether or not the President has the will to defend U.S. interests.

Eyes now are on Obama. How will he respond to challenges? The probing begins.

North Korea. and China. and Iran. and Taliban.