[Ben Ficklin]

"Whoever he listens to......"

He is definitely not listening to you NeoCons.

NeoCon Cheney is out, Realist Colin Powell is in.
NeoCon Rumsfeld is out Realist Bob Gates is in
NeoCon Wolfowitz is out, Realist Brent Scowcroft is in
NeoCon puppet Liz Cheney never was in, she will always be out

Notice the last sentence in the third paragraph: "she seem to be quite the foreign policy realist"

She is not a realist, she is a "liberal interventionist"

Obama's foreign policy is being run by a coalition of Realists and Liberal Interventionists. This coalition has been running the US's foreign policy since the Iraq Study Group issued it's report and Bob Gates replaced Rumsfeld.

Consequently, there is going to be a lot of squealing from the NeoCons, the left wing pacifists, and the right wing isolationists.

[Brad from Tennessee]

The method for toppling Saddam was formulated in Clinton's last term when the policy shifted from containment to regieme change. Kenneth Pollock's “The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq” published in 2002 laid out the argument for invasion. It's still a good argument though Pollock has at times wavered in his original view. Had Turkey allowed the 4th ID to invade Iraq from the north conditions may have stabilized earlier. Truman was run out of office largely over Korea. Today South Korea's is world's 8th largest exporter, the world's 5th largest automaker, and the world's largest shipbuilder.

I'm not disagreeing with you. Realism is very attractive and potentially far more economical diplomatically and fiscally than much of the post-Cold War policy. But they still got to get it right. No president inherits a clean slate and no president can ignore popular sentiment. Often there is little choice but to continue on-going solutions to real and perceived crises. Reagan and Herbert Walker Bush turned a blind eye to the transshipment of narcotics through Panama because to interdict it would just move more of the flow through Nicaragua and Cuba, benefiting them financially. In the end Panama got so corrupt public opinion encouraged Bush to intervene. South Vietnam may not have been worth saving but it was the battleground chosen to metastasize communist resources in the Western Pacific while Thailand, Indonesia, Burma, the Philippines, Malaysia, etc. strengthened themselves. In the end, the Soviets inherited just another economic basket case after expending resources that were exorbitantly expensive to replace under their dysfunctional economy. But no politician can fit any of that on a bumper sticker.