The newspaper smart enough to know where Jesus is buried was at it again. According Thomas Friedman there are US Presidents who had it easy; and then there are those who have to flat out suffer. Here’s his latest effort to generate a few more web clicks for the Senile Grey Lady.

In several critical areas, Reagan had a much easier world to lead in than Obama does now….Here’s how: The defining struggle in Reagan’s day was the Cold War, and the defining feature of the Cold War was that it was a war between two different systems of order: Communism versus democratic capitalism. But both systems competed to build order …Obama’s world is different. It is increasingly divided by regions of order and regions of disorder, where there is no one to answer the phone, and the main competition is not between two organized superpowers but between a superpower and many superempowered angry men.

Just so we can footnote it after we laugh our posteriors off at Flat Earth Tommy Friedman, here’s NATOs best intelligence on what a Warsaw Pact Order of Battle would have looked like in 1988. The units listed below in the GDR (East Germany) are a fairly representative sample of a much larger force.

4. 3rd Shock Tank Army HQ – Madgeburg, GDR: 7th Guards Tank Division, 10th Guards Tank Division, 12th Guards Tank Division, 47th Guards Tank Division, 3rd Shock Attack Helicopter Regiment, 304th Artillery Brigade, 3rd Shock SSM Brigade, 3rd Shock Rocket Regiment, 3rd Shock Engineer Brigade, 36th Pontoon Bridge Regiment , 3rd Shock SAM Brigade, 3rd Shock Air Assault Battalion, 3rd Shock Spetsnaz Battalion, 3rd Shock Reconnaissance Battalion
5. 2nd Guards Tank Army HQ – Neubrandenburg, GDR: 16th Guards Tank Division, 94th Guards Motorized Rifle Division, 21st Motorized Rifle Division, 207th Motorized Rifle Division, 2nd GTA Attack Helicopter Regiment, 2nd Artillery Brigade, 2nd GTA SSM Brigade, 2nd GTA Rocket Regiment, 2nd GTA Engineer Brigade, 413th Pontoon Bridge Regiment, 2nd GTA SAM Brigade, 2nd GTA Air Assault Battalion, 2nd GTA Spetsnaz Battalion, 2nd GTA Reconnaissance Battalion.

Here’s what we’re up against with ISIS according to Thomas Friedman’s beloved Mothership.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel testified along with General Dempsey, but their appearance appeared to do little to dispel concerns on Capitol Hill. They said the campaign would include the training and equipping of 5,000 Syrian fighters and the involvement of more than 40 coalition nations, including 30 that have pledged military support. Members of the committee sounded far from convinced that the plan would succeed. Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, said he doubted that 5,000 Syrian fighters, who could not be trained for months, would be able to fight off more than 30,000 Islamic State combatants. “To many of us that seems like an inadequate response,” he said.

According to Friedman, people will have to figure it out 100’s of years from now which was tougher. Warsaw Pact, ISIS; ISIS, Warsaw Pact…which one was the greater threat? I think Peter D. Feaver, a national security aide who worked for President’s Clinton and Bush II, explains the really tough part for Barack Obama.

These terms mean things to the military, and have implications for resource commitments,” said Peter D. Feaver, a former national security aide to George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. “If you’re using the term war, that implies a level of presidential commitment. The acid question is whether it is higher than Obama’s own commitment.

If Feaver is correct, than maybe Friedman hasn’t completely sailed off the edge of the world that he opines is flat. It really tough to succeed at anything when you don’t personally want to do the job. That, right there, may be the biggest handicap Barack Obama faces as he wages his intractable Golf War against ever having to assume professional responsibility for his feckless failure to perform his job.