“We went after Japan only after they attacked us, and Germany only after they declared war on us.
When did Iraq attack or declare war on us?”
Your argument is asinine. Are you suggesting that we ought to use a war in which we did not preempt the enemy and which killed 55 million people in 6 years as an example of why preemption is wrong? I think Ron Paul supporters need to go back to the drawing board on that line of reasoning.
Iraq was not the enemy after 9/11. Using the same reasoning, why didn't we invade Saudi Arabia? Direct links between the Saudis and bin Ladin can be demonstrated.
As for the atrocities committed under Sadaam, Not our problem. The Iraqis needed to deal with it, one way or the other.
Japan might not have become a militant military power in Asia if it was not for the embarrassment that we caused them when we forced them to open up their country for trade. At the time of the opening of trade, Japan’s weaponry was primitive. Immediately after the opening for trade, they began to build a military with modern weapons.
Also, Japan might not have attacked us if FDR hadn’t kept provoking them.
Winning WW II eliminated the threats from Germany and Japan, but gave us the new threats from Communism which led to Korea and Nam. Not to mention the 50-70 million killed by Stalin and Mao.
Russia certainly has enough ICBM’s to wipe us out. China has the bomb and the technology, but we don’t know how many ICBM’s, but it has some.