....that the liberals here probably don't want noticed:

"The fact is, close to five years after 9/11 and fifteen years after the breakup
of the Soviet Union, the United States still lacks a coherent national security
policy. Instead of guiding principles, we have what appear to be a series of ad
hoc decisions, with dubious results. Why invade Iraq and not North Korea or
Burma? Why intervene in Bosnia and not Darfur? ...Are we committed to use force
wherever there’s a despotic regime that’s terrorizing its people—and if so, how
long do we stay to ensure democracy takes root? ...Perhaps someone inside the
White House has clear answers to these questions. But our allies - and for that
matter our enemies-certainly don’t know what the answers are. More important,
neither do the American people. Without a well-articulated strategy that the
public supports and the world understands, America will lack the legitimacy -
and ultimately the power - it needs to make the world safer than it is today."

--Barack Obama. "The Audacity of Hope" (2006), page 302.




'We don’t get very hung up on this question of precedent. We don’t make
decisions about questions like intervention based on consistency or precedent."

- Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough, March 28, 2011