However, cutting off the head of a snake is fruitless if it just regrows,

I think a two decade commitment to getting a legitimate government is what we are looking at, if that's what we want to do. You can have benign dictatorships that work, like Singapore. Not every government has to be like ours. If the country has a lot of different tribes and factions, a parliamentary form of government might be better. We need to look at Norway for pointers, and convince the oligarchs they are better off in a thriving economy as they will have an enormous influence on the government.

Our government isn't functioning well at the moment. We've claimed the Americas as our sphere of influence and are back at gunboat diplomacy. The Neocon influence has reappeared with changes. What are the odds on a war over the next three years?