When foreign policy "realism" is just another delusional plot

Someone please explain to me how installing and arming authoritarian near failed-states that already outspend Iran in defense spending many times over constitutes "realism" of any sort.

Conspiracy theories of various sorts always assume the existence of an all-knowing, omnicompetent "government" in charge of everything that has a secret, well-planned, long term vision for shaping our future. I have always doubted this. Instead I suspect the government consists of nothing more than a bunch of thieves who are out to protect and promote their own rather miserable little interests for a short period of time at the public's expense, at least until the next election cyle. So instead of some grand conspiracy that informs our government policies, instead what really drives government policy is a bunch of contradictory little plots that mostly quickly fail and cause more problems down the road.

Now, I think I have proof: a mere 7 months ago, the stated US foreign policy was "democracy promotion" according to which previous US support for authoritarian regimes was to come to an end and instead the US was to fundamentally reshape its approach to the Mideast.

Oh, those heady days of 'democracy promotion' when Rice proclaimed:

"For 60 years, my country, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region, here in the Middle East, and we achieved neither. Now, we are taking a different course. We are supporting the democratic aspirations of all people."

And having said that, Sec of State Rice proceed to visit Egypt, one of the worse human rights abusers in the region, where she praised the local puppet regime:

In the days before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with officials in Egypt, the news media here were filled with stories detailing charges of corruption, cronyism, torture and political repression.

Cellphone videos posted on the Internet showed the police sodomizing a bus driver with a broomstick. Another showed the police hanging a woman by her knees and wrists from a pole for questioning. A company partly owned by a member of the governing party distributed tens of thousands of bags of contaminated blood to hospitals around the country. And just 24 hours before Ms. Rice arrived, the authorities arrested a television reporter on charges of harming national interests by making a film about police torture. The reporter was released, but the authorities kept the tapes.

Ms. Rice, who once lectured Egyptians on the need to respect the rule of law, did not address those domestic concerns. Instead, with Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit by her side, she talked about her appreciation for Egypt’s support in the region.

And since then the US has tried its hardest to suppress governments in the Mideast that were actually democratically-elected, like the Palestinian government in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and now the US is selling billions of dollars in weapons to autocratic ("moderate"?) regimes like the Saudis supposedly to "protect them" from a "brewign threat" from Iran (even though Saudi Arabia already outspends Iran in defence spending many times over.)

And ironically, this policy of supporting the local tyrants instead of "democracy promotion" is characterized as foreign policy of "realism" - when realistically speaking, none of these arms sales will actually strengthen these half-failed autocratic regimes since the primary threats to their stability is not from Iran but from their own corruption and internal discontent, all of which will only be inflamed further by these weapons sales and continued US support for Israeli aggression and expansionism.

And guess what? Now, under this supposedly "realistic" foreign policy, the US will try to topple Iraqi PM Maliki and insert another, new Saddam into Iraq . . . and hope all turns out well.

Great job! Several 180 degree turns in foreign policy in mere months - and you still can't come up with a credible, viable foreign policy approach. Wow! What a way to run a superpower . . . right into the ground.

Well, I guess its better to continue down a failed path and make some more money for our arms dealers to pay kickbacks to Saudi royal family counterparts then, you know, actually do something constructive.