Hey chucklenut,
Many of your arguments don't hold water at all. I will explain why. First though, I do want to agree with one thing you've stated, "...everything in economics is based in the buyers' confidence of what a product is worth...." Yes, that's why fiat money is used instead of precious metals today and why in spite of the fact that one may give away silver, salt, dollars, or gold, those things won't necessarily lose their perceived value because confidence would not necessarily be undermined.
Nation building is not providing security...it's telling others that we will impose the leaders, values, and military bases we want on your soil for the purpose of controlling either the spigot of resources or the cultural dynamic that is favorable to our worldview.
I think you have little to no clue about Middle East and American history. Which nation led the undermining and destabilization of Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan most recently? Which country supported and propped up the Ba'athists during the corrupt Reagan and Bush 1 administrations?
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articl...prove_america_helped_saddam_as_he_gassed_iran Which nation supported and propped up the radical and depraved predecessors of Al-Qaeda (remember that bunch whose figurehead, Osama bin Laden, was enemy number 1 to the war hawks in the US?)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1670089.stm
If you answered the U.S. to all of those, you'd be right. Learn your history before making absurd accusations.
As for most people benefiting, you don't even have a good anecdotal argument let alone something substantive. Since the invasion and subsequent military occupation of Iraq beginning in 1990 (Gulf War - a war of choice no doubt for the U.S.), what has been the all in cost to the tax payer for everything (including long term health care for vets who were psychologically or physically damaged and payouts to family members of soldiers who died as a result of injuries in these US led attacks, and I mean everything)? What has been the cost in lives and trauma to vets, their families, and the rest of us? At this level of incomprehensible expense, are we really more safe now? Before 1990, there have been no incidents inside the US of retributional killings but since the Gulf War we have had a few...the short list includes those who have been succesful in killing others here in the US or were caught prior to carrying out their plans for killing in the U.S. That short list includes but is not limited to (in no particular date order: November 2009: Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, July 2011: Army Pfc. Naser Abdo, June 2009: Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, October and November, 2010: Marine Corps reservist Yonathan Melaku. These were all deadly or near deadly incidents that were carried out on military installations. If not even our own military installations are less safe since the Gulf War began, then why would that make civilians more safe??? It doesn't.
Most people in the world are actually not better off because of these deadly and extremely costly wars of choice....to claim that it is is simply regurgitating war hawk propaganda. Countless people have paid dearly in many ways for these wars of choice.
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