In my opinion, the neocons love balance of power and stability.  Iran was to be contained, so we take over Iraq on one side and take over Afghanistan on the other.  Slap crippling sanctions on them so they can&#x27;t muster more than IED and guerilla attacks and otherwise let them rot.  Buy off those that can be bought (Egyptian military), threaten those that can be threatened into submission (Libya and Pakistan), etc.  Things stay generally stable but under pressure in a lot of spots.<p>Obama seems to come from a totally different place.  I think there has been a lot of bumbling and trying to lead by tracking polls.  Egypt was a perfect example of this, Hozni Mubarak and the Egyptian military got mixed signals and then got thrown under the bus because of public polls, as far as I&#x27;m concerned.  Expedient to make him look populist, but also reckless.<p>Beyond the bumbling, I think the Obama is all about upsetting the existing order.  He&#x27;s into fundamental transformation, it&#x27;s his thing.  Wars and allowing hegemony to form that is natural for a region, like Iran in the middle East, is ultimately what he wants to see.