On George and Ike

While neither of these two guys were perfect (the former not only having been a slave owner but a virulent one and the latter having played a key role in the Shah's ascendancy), they were probably the two most prudent and wise Presidents when it came to foreign policy and keeping a lid on militarism as an end. I don't know, maybe because the two of them themselves were Generals and had seen close-up the horrors of war they were a little more reticent to plunge the country into it (Washington staying out of European conflicts, Eisenhower refusing to bail out the French troops in Vietnam). Whatever it was, it was certainly better than the progressive and neoconservative adventurism that has so hugely characterized other Presidencies and wouldn't it be nice to at least entertain that humility once again?