The Secretary of Defense should always be for war (and in this sense, Donald Rumsfeld is a great Defense Minister), and the Secretary of State should always be for peace, against war, and always striving for diplomatic resolve. (Colin Powell, some may successfully argue, meets this criterion.)

However, when the Secretary of State has zero-say in the decisions made in foreign policy (as is the surrent situation) and the plea for peace is muted, this criteria is not met, and thus foreign policy decisions are purely military-based.

The President should always hear the extreme sides of foreign policy matters (the hawks from Defense, the doves from State) and make a balanced, educated decision on the issue or conflict. This is not the current method in the Oval Office, unfortunately.

Note: Every cirumstance certainly does not have to meet these criteria, e.g., Hitler, Al-Qaeda, whereas the only solution is military resolve.