Minimization: These are real arguments!
• We only invaded Somalia for the untapped vast oil reserves.
• We only invaded Afghanistan to build a pipeline through it.
• We’re invading Panama to hold onto the canal past its return date.
• We only helped Germany so for our own self interest (The Bollwerk) in the fight against the Soviets. Ironically, we were helping “Before” relations deteriorated, but that’s lost in the German revisionist history also.
• We were in Vietnam for the vast tin (Zinn) reserves, according to some experts of the time. Like there isn’t enough tin in the world./sarc
• Haiti, Liberia, Libya, Iraq, Balkans.............. It does not matter, as soon as US boots touch the ground, oil just magically bubbles out of the ground and spills all over the German newspapers.
• Hell, even our aid to the victims after the Tsunami was just to “buy the favor” of the Muslim world.
Tell me, at what point does the German feel like an idiot when beating his “Kein Blut fuer Oel” drum and blaming the Tsunami on the US and global warming?
And of course these are things said by a people that like to quote DeGaule (A French Nationalist) when convenient, “Nations have no friends, only interests.” Ever hear a US politician or the US people say this to you?
But no worries, like the Cold War, as with the Balkans, we’ll forget and forgive Shroeder’s and Fischer’s words and actions, your Greens, PDS, WASG and others screaming about missile defense when that Iranian ugly head starts to pop up. ***There is a big difference between people demonstrating and when politicians and local leaders play games using the powers of their offices to damage our collective interests, that’s something you want to ignore.*** There will always be those who scream this or that, but when the leaders of a free nation like Germany, sitting in the same boat with us, make statements to the effect that Iran is no threat, that the war on terror is all but George Bush’s imagination, that missile defense will start a new arms race and destabilize the world; and when they take ***actions*** that damage progress in security developments, all to pander to leftist and anti-American sentiments and save their hide politically, that’s irresponsible and goes far beyond just not doing anything. Sure we also have anti-nuke demonstrations, we also have anti-war demonstrations……… But what are our political and national security “actions.” What are the official positions of our government and what are our intelligence, security, and defense apparatuses doing?
Deeds, not words.
So you'd say the USA does not lead war out of interest, but out of friendship? Wars are not strategic decisions? Is that what you're trying to say?
I admit that the problem of the homo oeconomicus, the profit-maximizing actor, is often questionable on the personal level, for example because explaining selfless deeds with the gain of self esteem is not exactly useful. But on a larger scale, and especially in international relations, the homo oeconomicus model is almost never wrong.