This thread is funny. None of you have any idea. American wars now are a last resort option for empire building. The very first step in US empire building is foreign loans.
We use so called "economic hit men" to create falsified reports of how huge industrial, energy, and transportation investments in underdeveloped countries will result in huge economic growth for these countries. These reports are presented to the leaders of these countries who fall into three categories. The first is the greedy politician. These people know the reports are false but sign their country into debt for personal gain. The second is the confused politician. These people think the reports are valid and sign their countries into debt because they believe it will help.
However, the last group is the politician who knows the US is trying to fuck them and is above personal greed. If the leaders of an underdeveloped nation fall into this category the economic hit men go away and the CIA takes over. This is when we support opposition to the current leadership, try to assassinate leaders, etc.
If this fails as well the last resort of military intervention. The US does NOT like to use the military because it upsets people, draws attention to our conquest, etc. This is why there is rarely war now.
Empires are now built out of loans and debt, then convert coups, then military power. The foreign aid loans we make have stipulations that all construction MUST be done by US corporations. This means money flows from banks in the US, through foreign countries, and back to engineering firms in the US. Now we have them hooked. Unfortunately, our reports were "exaggerated" and even after all the new construction is complete the country is not doing any better but now they have billions in debt to the US. This debt is then used as leverage to sway UN votes, give US corporations access to their resources for cheap, etc.
That's about all there is to it. When we put troops into another country it's because they wouldn't become indebted to us by listening to our lies about economic development and the CIA failed to cause sufficient unrest or assassination resulting in a puppet government being put in place.
Now.....
Is this good or bad or what? That's for each person to decide for themselves. The above are simply the facts of how power is gained in the world today. The UK and China are also both playing this game. Also, giving "aid" to countries is how we keep them impoverished. It's similar to welfare in the US. By giving them just enough to stay alive they are docile and allow us to steal their very life essence.
In the US welfare is a way of ensuring we have plenty of people who can't quite get ahead in life but can continue to work minimum wage jobs, going to prison (supporting infrastructure), or other "bad things" that we in fact rely on to function. We have countries in Africa that are billions in debt to us and all their people are starving to death but they produce enough food to feed half the world. Why is this? Because we give them enough aid to survive, steal all their crops as exports because they're so in debt they have to do it, and they blame their own government.
The old way was military occupation of a country and slavery of the people. Around the time of the black civil rights movement in the US this changed into economic occupation and wage slavery of the people. Then they only get mad at themselves because they think it's their fault they're poor, etc and everyone who isn't poor can believe they are somehow better and that's why they aren't poor. It's really luck of the draw though.
Don't believe it? Look at Iraq. My favorite part of Operation Iraqi Freedom is that even though their military put up essentially zero resistance we came in and blew the fuck out of all their infrastructure. Then we auctioned off the rights to rebuild that same infrastructure to US corporations. Saddam wouldn't kneel to the US empire, the CIA couldn't get him, and so we had to come in with our guns and blow the fuck out of everything so we could get those fucking economic contracts signed god damn it! I love it. Same thing is happening in Afghanistan.
Any small country that has any resources at all is a target for us and will be for many years to come until all of them have been placed under our debt flag. Once that's done it's time for World War III and whatever nation has the most indebted subnations wins. The race is on.
To the OP: I hope you enjoy being shot at for other people's political and financial gain. Oh and all you bleeding heart "patriots" crack me the fuck up. Are you really so INCREDIBLY STUPID that you think the concept of a country matters to the ultra elite in the world now? This isn't the 1800s anymore. The world has gotten about 1,000 times smaller in the last 20 years. This is a fight for global conquest and countries are simply a distraction and means of control. Give me a fucking break. The people fighting in foreign countries right now are doing nothing but supporting the gain of some powerful people who will run the US into the ground if it helps them. These people WANT the US to fall apart eventually, it's part of their plan to globalization. Bush has like 600,000 acres of land in Argentina of all places. That's where all the money and power will be by the end of our lifetimes. The US will be about as advanced and well off as India.
