We're a republic of basically peaceful people. We aren't the Mongols. We don't want people to live in fear of us. We just don't want them to screw with us.
But making children far away cower and tremble at the sound of our name?.......that ain't us.
I've come to the conclusion that, until we do something approximating that, they are going to continue to "screw around with us" because they know that we aren't serious enough to put an end to it.