"There was no corner of the world where some interest was not alleged to
be in danger or under attack. If the the interests were not Roman, they
were those of Rome's allies; and if Rome had no allies, the allies would
be invented. When it was uttlerly impossible to contrive such an
interest---why, then it was national honor that had been insulted. The
fight was always invested with an aura of legality. Rome was always
being attacked by evil-minded neighbors...The whole world was pervaded
by a host of enemies, it was manifestly Rome's duty to guard against
their indubitably aggressive designs...Even less in the cases that have
already been discussed, can an attempt be made here to comprehend these
wars of conquest from the point of view of concrete objectives. Here
there was neither a warrior nation in our sense, nor, in the beginning,
a military despotism or an aristocracy of specifically military
orientation. Thus there is but one way to an understanding: scrutiny of
domestic class interests, the question of who stood to gain."--- Joseph
Schumpeter

Sound familiar. Of course, ratchet up the fire power, the intelligence
network, and the all-pervasive corporate interests for the answer. I'm
just shocked any percentage of the population would want to live in
South-East Asia or Latin America after the U.S. has gotten through
ransacking it. Makes the former colonial powers, even the Brits, look
like pikers.---Carlo Parcelli