Well, so much for the “Pacific Pivot.” That was the term coined for the Obama administration’s attentive shift to the Far East in light of saber-rattling by China and North Korea. The “pivot” is yesterday’s news: It’s less a pivot now and more like a full-on spinning top. After seven years of his relentless onslaught against American military might, Mr. America’s-Not-Exceptional has done everything in his power to ensure that America is not, in fact, exceptional. Now we learn the tab for this disturbingly naive worldview is coming due even while Barack Obama still occupies the Oval Office. All we can say is, God help the next commander in chief.

Acting as the better-late-than-never voice of reason for the administration, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced a 2017 budget request of $3.4 billion to better defend Europe. The request more than quadruples the current budget for the region, and not a moment too soon. The money will fund weapons, armored vehicles, supplies and personnel to provide an increased U.S. military presence in Central and Eastern Europe, in an attempt to finally counter the largely unchecked Russian aggression in the region. The administration’s stated goal for the increased budget is to ensure NATO has the ability to maintain a full combat armored brigade in the region. And just think: It only took one downed, fully-loaded Boeing 777, the takeover of two sovereign nations and an ongoing war against another to spur Team Hope to action. Who said Obama is slow to act?

Obama’s listless war on the Islamic State also would get a shot in the arm — a 35%, or $7 billion, increase. The European increase is ostensibly a “one-time request,” but we’re pretty sure that’s how all these efforts start out. It’s hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

Our (ahem) “strategic partner” — Russia — was also quick to remark that Carter’s announcement is “destabilizing and detrimental to the European security.” That’s rich. Russia of course knows a thing or two about the subject — just ask Ukraine, Georgia or Crimea. In any case, it’s good that the White House stated the increased budget would allow for “continuous armored brigade rotations” in Central and Eastern Europe because at the rate we’re going, we’ll soon need continuous armored brigade rotations.

“Reset” for the win.

The sad truth is that our nation is reaping exactly what the Obama regime has sown. While Russia was spending $730 billion over the last 10 years to modernize its military, the social engineers in Obama’s Defense Department have been more concerned with integrating transsexuals into military units — never mind utterly destroying unit cohesiveness and combat effectiveness. While Russia, China, North Korea and assorted radical Islamists have been gearing up over the last decade, U.S. military leaders have been forced to become keenly focused on how to covertly lower physical standards enough to put more women into frontline combat roles.

And while these same rogue states and their proxies have been spinning up war machines posing existential threats not just to regional but to global security, our meek and clueless commander in chief has been parading around the country calling global warming the nation’s “top security threat.” Sure it is.

Indeed: God help the next president — and God help us all if the next president is a Democrat.