Return of realism

Realism has been the big bug-a-boo of our current foreign policy debate.  It has been the Realists in foreign policy versus George W.Bush.  The Realists argue that the best strategy is almost always to balance foreign powers, with careful nudging on each side to keep the power structure relatively stable.  The Realists opposed removing Saddam and trying to create a replacement government.

Turns out we now have a Realist foreign policy.  We may have gotten here inadvertently.  We have the Shia fighting the Sunni in Iraq and potentially in Lebanon. All the Sunni governments are becoming strong allies of ours (Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Sunni Lebanon) and the major Shia forces in Iraq are on our side too. Syria is moving into our camp because the Allawite minority governs a strong anti-Shia Sunni majority.