Well you know some say:
Lovers and winners shape the future.
Do you teach at Columbia?
No, but I have one nephew who's served as a Marine in Iraq, and another who is on his way there now. 18 of the 19 hijackers, you may recall, were Saudis. And our response was -- to gin up a war against a former client of ours, who had so effectively served our interests in the 1980s that Iran's demographic shape is still injured. The Arab nation that protected its Christian minorities, and even had a Christian prime minister. Some damn body made a buck. And Assyrian Christians are being forced out of homelands they've lived in for nearly 3,000 years.
Or do you agree with Michael Ledeen that the US needs to throw some "crappy little nation" against the wall every ten years or so, to demonstrate our ethical superiority to the world?