What do you think the primary motivation was for establishing representative government in Iraq?
Think: what countries border Iran?
Turkey - a NATO member. Azerbaijan, a US ally. Armenia, another US ally despite the conflict with Azerbaijan. Turkmenistan -a US ally with US airbases. Afghanistan - a US ally with NATO presence. Pakistan - a US ally. Across the Gulf of Oman is Oman, the UAE and Qatar - all US allies.
Finally, Iraq - a US ally with substantial US military presence.
Iran is completely encircled by US power.
Humanitarian interests and US national interests are usually identical - Hamiltonian conservatives knew, and today's conservatives also know, that the US does well by doing good.
Wilson - a Jeffersonian radical and Confederate sympathizer - has nothing at all to do with current US policy in the Middle East.
I agree that Wilson was a scumbag but even the neo-cons admit that he was the founder of the effort to spread to democracy (rather than annex territory) through force of arms. As LBJ would say, Wilson might be scumbag but he's scumbag. Deal with it.
Hamilton never couched the issue in terms of spreading representative government. He wanted to annex territory. Are you suggesting we do the same for Iraq? If not, you are a modern Wilsonian.
I agree that Wilson was a scumbag but even the neo-cons admit that he was the founder of the effort to spread to democracy (rather than annex territory) through force of arms. As LBJ would say, Wilson might be scumbag but he's your scumbag. Deal with it.