MIDDLE EAST

At the request of President-elect Barack Obama, President George W. Bush convened an awkward meeting of all living former presidents at the White House to meet, and presumably give advice and encouragement to, the new guy.

The body language of the participants in the summit photo, taken in the Oval Office, said it all.

The President-elect was amiably chatting with George H.W. Bush, the current President’s father. Could it be that Obama was complimenting the elder Bush on his “realist” foreign policy — of which Obama claims to be a fan?

Right next to these two political lovebirds were another harmonious duo. Also visibly enjoying each other’s company were the modern-day champions of U.S. military interventionism on the left and right — Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Clinton was a Wilsonian liberal who was the titleholder in terms of numbers of military adventures, most of them for ostensibly “humanitarian” reasons. He intervened militarily or threatened to use force in Sudan, Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and North Korea.

The younger Bush, a neoconservative (a right-wing Wilsonian), was the champion in terms of deeply enmeshing the United States in two unnecessary nation-building quagmires simultaneously — Iraq and Afghanistan.

Standing apart from the others in the summit photo — and looking mighty uncomfortable — was Jimmy Carter. Could it be that the interventionism, actual or professed, of all the others made him a little squeamish?

While not perfect, Carter — in keeping with the original vision of the nation’s Founders — exhibited more restraint militarily than the rest. Although he began giving aid to the Afghan mujahadeen, his objective was to annoy the Soviets and give them another Vietnam.