What do you consider our "greed and unjustifiable self-interest"?
Oil, obviously, and I said "possibly" unjustified. We haven't the backbone to develop our own reserves; and name any nation which does not harbor at least some greedy politicians or special interest groups with significant influence on foreign policy who would gladly advocate war if it served their own special interests regardless of more legitimate motives being decisive.
"After all, before liberating Kuwait, Secretary of State Baker said the coming war was about o-i-l. And while we sent half a million troops to rescue that nation of 1.5 million, we sent none to Rwanda, where perhaps that many people were massacred."
I'm suggesting that Pat's analysis is not just useless verbiage for the dump heap.