> I'd think your assertion at face value is abhorrent. Doesn't make it less true though. Reaison d'Etat and Realpolitik are at the base of anything we hold dea

> I'd think your assertion at face value is abhorrent. Doesn't make it less true though. Reaison d'Etat and Realpolitik are at the base of anything we hold dear in the modern world. Otherwise we would have had Hapsburg theocracy in Europe and the modern world would have been impossible. It was Richelieu going against his god, to service his country and Disraeli and Bismark that made the modern world possible.