text: So what of Crimea and the explosion of the Islamic State and al Qaeda across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia? What of the nearly half-million Syrian lives lost or that country's 4 million refugees? What of Iran's sequential violations of its missile deals with the West? Of China's growing menace in the South China Sea? What of the exploitation of the youth Obama professes to care for in Cuba and Venezuela? What of America's stand as a beacon of democratic capitalism, of humane leadership, and compassion?