It is more of a "Euro-thing" to look at this in terms of a bill to be paid. That's why they moan about our possible attack on Iraq. THEY see it as "mission drift" because they're all perfectly willing to live with the status quo.
Of course, their continent has been bathed in bloodshed so many times throughout the centuries of their cultural existence, it's no wonder they're happy with that. They worked hard to appease the Kaiser, Hitler, Stalin and Kruschev, and they have no more soul.
For us, peace isn't simply the absence of war, it's the absence of THREAT. Hence, we fought a COLD WAR against Communist imperialism, the decades over which "world opinion" wanted détente and appeasement. But to us the threat was real just as long as that regime haunted the earth.
Well, they don't anymore, and the world is safer because WE weren't willing to "go along to get along."
I don't think our national resolve has changed that much, despite the fact that the outrageous willingness to coexist with evil that once made George McGovern a very unique Democrat has now become that party's standard line.