There are many countries that want change but lack the will or ability to become what they aspire to be.

You look in the mirror and you see fat. There is no hiding it unless you turn the mirror around. You don’t like how you look. It’s not healthy, and it reminds you of how great you looked so many years ago. You realize that you can lose weight, but such an outcome comes with a price tag. Either starting or increasing exercise. And then there is your wife’s cooking. Can you give up all of those delicacies? After much thought and consideration, you take the mirror down and throw it in the garbage.

Many countries want to be different from what they are today. Their leaders or their people make it clear that the status quo stinks and that they want to either go back to a better time or move forward to a hopefully better future. As they say, talk is cheap. Action, well, that can demand a lot.

Look today at the efforts being undertaken by the Trump administration to simply undo much of the damage caused by its predecessors. ICE agents work everywhere and all of the time, but they would admit that their pace of action is too slow to fully deal with the millions of illegal aliens allowed in under Biden and in need of removal. The same is true for fixing the military or getting universities back to teaching students rather than hosting anti-American rallies. Fixing things takes time, money, patience, a will of steel, and a constant focus on the goal. President Trump knows what he wants for America and is not willing to compromise on the country’s future. The same cannot be said for many other places that claim to want better.

I stand in awe of Tommy Robinson and his unwavering commitment to truth and a better future for England. Months in solitary confinement and multiple arrests for exposing the Pakistani rape gangs in his home country have not dampened his spirit or weakened his desire to see a better England. But while he and the many patriots that support his efforts wish to see a future UK similar to a past UK that offered more for its citizens, official England has raised the white flag. King Charles just opened a new Islamic center at Oxford. While his mother had 300 official activities each year that included opening new facilities, this event was different. In his speech, he asked his subjects to make a bigger effort to understand Islam and its ever-growing number of practitioners in their midst. He did not make such a request of Muslims who have often shown contempt for their adopted home, its citizens, and its laws. You will find no British Jews demanding that England follow Torah law; you will find plenty of Muslim immigrants who make it clear that Sharia law will be England’s future. The King, his government, and officialdom have effectively thrown in the towel in trying to keep England British. They are resigned to Islam taking over and are just negotiating their surrender under the best terms possible.

Let’s dash on over to Lebanon, a country once known as the Switzerland of the Middle East. Many Lebanese would like to be done with an armed Hezbollah. They are willing to maintain a political aspect to this group, representing the Shiites in the country. But Hezbollah will not disarm. Even with a weakened Iran and Syria no longer available as a land route for weapons delivery, Hezbollah wants to remain the terror organization it has always been. While Lebanon does not seem to be hankering for a formal peace treaty with Israel, it would like quiet on its southern border, rather than the daily drone attacks that remove a couple of Hezbollah operatives who did not have beepers blow up in their pockets. Lebanon wants quiet, political stability, and the ability to get its finances back in order, so as to once again draw European holidaymakers to a country known for its beauty and hospitality. But to disarm Hezbollah would require the official Lebanese army to fight the Iranian proxy, and as in England, we should not ask too much of the locals. For Lebanese leaders, crushing Hezbollah and making the army the sole owner of heavy weapons are simply a bridge too far. The president and his men will kvetch about Israel holding several positions in the country. Israel cannot leave if the locals are not willing to disarm the Shiite terror group. So, like England, Lebanon will look in that mirror and see the future it wants but not commit to the hard steps needed to reach it.

Its neighbor, Syria, is even worse off. Many have noted that when the Sykes-Picot Agreement was made to invent the modern Middle East, the British and French diplomats did not take into account the makeup of the countries they were inventing. And while the agreement was made over 100 years ago, we can see this week, Sunni ISIS thugs officially part of the Syrian army, trying to wipe out the Druze residents of the country. People were beheaded, families were murdered, patients and staff at a hospital were wiped out, and Druze women were taken as slaves of the Sunni and Bedouin fighters. The president, al-Julani, went from ISIS fatigues to Armani suits and a trimmed beard; the effort got him audiences with Donald Trump and other world leaders. But he resides in a country that would require a Saddam-level iron fist to keep it in order. Saddam told Bush that if the latter got rid of him, he would need “seven Saddams” to rule the country. So, while al-Julani fantasizes about joining the Abraham Accords and having a functional country, the reality is that he is on his way to a civil war that will probably end with the country being split up into various zones, one for each ethnic group.

There is no shortage of countries that want a future different from the ones they see before them. Many of the continental European countries are not happy with uncontrolled immigration and the resulting changes in their lives and lifestyles. If German Christmas markets require guarding like Hitler’s bunker, then maybe eject those who present the risk and take down the truck barriers? The challenge is that it takes enormous political will to stop the present and create a better future. Without Donald Trump, the human bulldozer, and the enormous efforts of DHS and ICE, there would be absolutely no hope of ending the presence of millions of illegal aliens inside the US. Most readers of this piece do not suffer from the dislocations and worsening living conditions brought about by massive immigration. Those who do are pleased that they, too, might enjoy a better American future. In Europe and elsewhere, where are the leaders who will put millions back on boats and planes and send them home so that a Dutch woman can take an evening stroll without fear and a French child can play in a Parisian park not turned into an immigrant tent city? The Europeans, Lebanese, and Syrians do not have a Donald Trump because not enough of their people have the collective will to make a complete break with the present in order to create a better future. And so the King will be opening more Islamic centers in the future.