“The limitations imposed by democratic political practices makes it difficult to conduct our foreign affairs in the national interest.”

The national interest is not to get entangled in foreign affairs to begin with.

If a Representative Republic existed, as was guaranteed by the Constitution, the statement would be nonsensical.

"Democratic principles" hell. When has our country ever been handicapped with that? When we wanted California and land surrounding it we invaded Mexico to take it. When we wanted Cuba and its riches of natural resources we invaded to take it away from Spain and followed up by taking the Philippines and several other islands. When we wanted total control of Latin America we established the Monroe Doctrine and raped those countries for more than a century. "Limitations" be damned.

Forget the "democratic political practices," it's the Constitution which should make it difficult. We are a Constitutionally Limited Federal REPUBLIC ... NOT a democracy!

Spot on analysis... matters not if it is a "republic" or not, the net effect is the same... politics rules how our government behaves, and politics are not in our own best interest.

Yes, such a shame that government is hamstrung from doing whatever they please without consulting the People and getting their approval first.

It's the people's right to be stupid. Of course the people have to live with the consequences of their stupidity, but will still blame the politicians.

Ha ha, the response above mine is the best line on the page! Offically the above qoute is true, democracy is very limiting but leaders usually find a way around it when there motiveated.