Teribus, Pakistan (India too for that matter) developed WMD in secrecy. So did Israel. Have you forgotten Vanunu? I haven't. And you're a bit wide of the mark with pre-war Germany too. I think most people would regard Germany as the agressor in the 1930s. There was certainly no hint of pre-emptive action by the UK and US and their allies. In fact the US might never have got involved (notwithstanding the best efforts of an outstanding president) except that it found itself on the receiving end. That is to say, - Germany declared war on the US.

The simple fact is, Teribus, that most countries practice to deceive. That's what state secrets are all about. And Britain has more than its fair share of those. Far more than the US for instance. And no regime on earth would take kindly to the humiliations imposed on Iraq - needlessly as it turns out, because having been shot to pieces in the first gulf war, the country was no more a threat than many another. (And any prospects for becoming a threat were severely hampered by santions and by coalition control of Iraqi airspace.)

As for the limits of US dominance, the country will destabilise as empires usually do. Administrations will not be able to play on pupular fears for ever, so the population is unlikely to remain endlessly biddable. (Right now, Bush could claim that extermination of the blacks is necessary for a safe future, and plwnty would fall in with that as a matter of national security.)

There are already signs of a north-south divide re-opening. As the US economy is overtaken by China's (and eventually by the EU's too, perhaps) America's insane investment in weaponry will be put in question; people will question that half the working population is in prison (as it will be on present trends), and in Yeats' phrase, mere anarchy will be loosed upon the nation.

At any rate, that's what my crystal ball shows. I expect yours shows a land flowing with milk and honey.