[Alberta's Child]

For realists such as Scowcroft, regime change is the ultimate taboo. Too risky, too dangerous, too unpredictable.

What Krauthammer has overlooked here is that Scowcroft is making precisely the same point that George W. Bush made as a candidate in 2000 when he adamantly opposed the use of the U.S. military for futile exercises in nation-building.

. . . he came out strongly against the war and the neocon sorcerers who magically foisted it upon what must have been a hypnotized president and vice president.

See my last statement above. "Sorcerers" and "magic" may be a kind way of explaining why Bush's actions as president were a far cry of his campaign promises as a candidate.

[.cnI redruM]

Iraq's sanctions, Oil for Food Program and No Fly Zones to keep Saddam from exterminating large swaths of his own people were not what anyone could logically describe as a metastable equilibrium. We broke Iraq 10 years before GWB was elected. It was our mess, we were obligated to clean it up.

[Cincinatus]

Scowcroft is making precisely the same point that George W. Bush made as a candidate in 2000 when he adamantly opposed the use of the U.S. military for futile exercises in nation-building.

We had an intervening event between W's election and the invasion of Iraq -- 9/11. That changed the geopolitical calculus. It's a poor President indeed that cannot adapt his foreign policy to changing circumstances.

[LibLieSlayer]

I think al qaeda changed Nation Building from a "feel good" liberal daydream, into a necessity for our survival. We are in a war unlike any we have faced in our past. Afghanistan and Iraq are a turning point in our victory over Islamofacism, much as Midway was a turning point in the war in the Pacific during WWII.

LLS

[Chgogal]

Germany, Japan and South Korea are definitely great examples of "futile exercises in nation-building".

For that matter, I think a well educated person can make a descent argument that the US was pretty good at continent building starting with the US itself and then including Europe and South East Asia. Just a thought.