Yes Jack, and the treaties that are in place which spell out the consequences to our enemies and the enemies of our allies, who, or rather what body approved those treaties? Hmmm? On your side of the argument, they currently have a lower approval rating than Glorious Leader.

Little Hawk, isn't it nice to have the luxury of time to analyze and argue (endlessly) the finer points of what precipitated armed conflict and don't you just wish the leaders of whatever time period had "our" wisdom and insight to those various scenarios? If the action of our leaders is one of pure aggression, a la Hitler and company, then yes, I agree, we need to do something about it. And the German people should have known better and some did! Some tried to stop him before he got started, as you know.

Herr Goering had a point about leading the sheep to the slaughter but the defenders have the same problem on the other side of alerting the sheep to the danger of an impending slaughter. The sheep would rather believe that everything is fine or that it couldn't get worse. "We just want to get along with everybody!" says the sheep. So maybe Roosevelt allowed Pearl Harbor. Maybe he realized that the sheep would not take the threat seriously until they got a taste of what our looming enemy to the East was really like. Maybe the Main wasn't the target of the Spaniards. You might even argue that none of the rallying points were really legitimate. None were certainly perfect. And some were down right wrong. That's life. I know of only one perfect human and he was crucified. Every LEADER has a responsibility to alert the people to the dangers at hand and to seek an expedient and hopefully just course of action to deal with those dangers as they arise.

In the US and other democratic countries, if we don't like they way the vehicle of state is being driven, we can tell the driver to stop and let someone else drive at the next (4 year) block and if the driver is REALLY bad the people can put him out a lot sooner. It's better than a lot of other systems. But, while the driver is in control, he must steer and maneuver to the best of his ability. His isn't the only view but it IS the view from which the control comes. That, and the rules of the road (the Constitution and our body of law), are all we have. When somebody sounds the horn, that means "Pay attention, possible danger ahead." Hillary, who very well may be the next "driver" was trying out the horn, I believe. And it works!