Unavoidable War

In recent days we have seen Iran launch numerous test missiles that have the capability of striking any area within a 1250 miles radius. So because we are out of range we shouldn't worry, right? Wrong, we are allies of Israel and according to Condoleezza Rice "we are sending a message to Iran that we will defend American interests and the interests of our allies." Now we're involved, and as the world's largest military power to some degree we always will be involved. It's like a parent trying to stay out of your child's business if conflict happens, you want to remove yourself but you can't by virtue of your role.

Upon seeing the movie Lord of War with Nicholas Cage and my own personal beliefs on war, I'll attempt to answer the question that if war is unavoidable, what then have we learned from our mistakes to help make it more manageable? Some examples;

-In 1953, Operation Ajax, would bring trade between Iran and the US of oil for weapons, which ultimately led to our alliance with Iraq (see 1979)
-In 1979, we turned to Saddam Hussein of Iraq providing him with weapons galore amongst other American resources, which led to the Gulf and Iraq Wars
-1980's we supplied Afghan militants (notably Osama Bin Linden) with money and weapons to fight Soviet troop advances, which led to 9/11 and the battle in Afghanistan in 2001
-2007 a summit meeting announced a US deal to send major new weapons systems to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel and other governments in the Middle East to counterbalance Iran's growing threat

Given these few examples we (political/appointed leaders) haven't learned much, and you will see similar patterns if you look back 200 or 2000 years ago as well. War strategies seem to be merely temporary fixes, not permanent ones...

...and for the record I'll always support the courageous efforts of our troops!