Point taken. Still, it leaves me wondering: what's the "rail gun" of diplomacy - e.g. how would serious money spent on R&D help us resolve the issue of Israel a

Point taken. Still, it leaves me wondering: what's the "rail gun" of diplomacy - e.g. how would serious money spent on R&D help us resolve the issue of Israel and the Palestinians? And what's the "rail gun" for nation building - how would serious money spent on R&D help us create a stable, democratic Afghanistan? I fear we're stuck in the "meta" version of "if all you have is a hammer": in terms of budget, all we have, in international relations, is the Defense Department. It has its uses, but its effectiveness is increasingly limited, not by dollars, but by our vision.