"Where's my parade?" - IN MY PANTS!

Sorry about that. I guess that was kinda tasteless of me. Seriously though, thanks for the informative post. The media lying to start wars is as old as dirt but the government? Say it isn't so!
This country's been on some "high-moral ground", "top of the world" power trip to educate the "less fortunate" ones for years. Was the communist threat really bad enough to fight two major wars, sorry, "conflicts" over? How many countries will we devestate in the name of a 'just cause'? I wish I could say that my grandma died for a good reason after being killed by a misdirected US bomb in Korea but it's hard. Even harder is justifying what went on after the US deserted the South Vietnamese peninsula and the north finally rolled through, "interrogating" anyone who had any connection to the US. Walk down the street and ask your local friendly 1st gen boat person whether it was worth it. If you can't find one I can introduce you to at least 11 in my family. "Noble" and "Proud" aren't words we can apply to these wars... the latest one was obviously a mad oil grab. Necessary? Like you, I struggle with that one.
The US is every country's big brother or worst bully, Global police, (isn't that one of the UN's jobs?) and now global SWAT team to rid the world of terror. At some point we'll just stop using excuses and just go in. How far away from a police state are we anyway?

its not tasteless at all dan-o, that title is actually a completely unrelated quote from margaret cho.

"every country's big brother, or worst bully" good one, we are indeed in the clutches of a leadership that is highly educated yet disturbingly narrow-minded in their world view. SPEAK OUT! dont let them get away with anymore.

I think this applies both to what Shlep posted and Dan's comment, but America in general is wholly and solely interested in its own economic interest. The reason America fought the pinko commie bastard wasn't because it was an idealogical problem but every market consumed by communism was one less market for the American capitalist juggernaut to play in. America hasn't fought too many "idealogical" wars.

America is all about making it cheap and selling it to as many people as possible come hell or high water. If you get in the way of this "motto" you will be removed. Like Georgie said, "You are either with us or against us." Whats it gonna be?

I have a decent feeling that I lot of people in power were actually worried about national security in terms of communism, although I'm sure economics factor into things. I just don't think the brinkmanship of things like the Cuban Missle Crisis were economically motivated, they were fear and pride motivated.

Still America is primarily motivated by money, but soon enough it'll be like that everywhere...

I agree with Ram, the overzealousness of alot of the leadership in the Pentagon goes beyond money. Like the Brian Cox character in X2, these are people who are absolutely convinced that their worldview is correct and must be propagated at all costs. They just cannot operate without a common enemy to fight against.