As Lord Palmerston said about the British Empire
–in US foreign policy we have no permanent friends, only permanent interests–.
Israel was an asset during the cold war—under its current regime it is a liability–both SecDef Gates and General Petraeus have made this fact crystal clear repeatedly in the last few months.
We have complex commercial and foreign policy interests with 191 Member States of the United Nations.
In NATO we have complex mutual defense interests with 27 other independent member countries.
Kissinger is correct -we need to involve Pakistan, Iran, China, India and Russia in the solution to Afghanistan.
We need to talk with Iran.
We can both talk and carry a big stick and that is what we will do to further American interests moving forward.