>In short it is not always about getting a military victory, but about gains on the geopolitical map. Sometimes even for personal glory (on might argue GWB administration on WMD)
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>That is not to say, blunders are not being made, but the effects are far less clear than military victory. Sometimes we can only guess.
>
>At the time of the 2nd Iraqi war, it was coined that an important reason to attack Saddam was because he wanted to get rid of the US dollar and favour the Euro as the trading currency (for oil). Now that might seem unimportant to you, but if that would have a cascading effect to other countries (e.g. Iran, Venezuela), it could mean big, big trouble for the US. The US dollar being the worlds reserve currency has a very distinct economic advantage as for exporting inflation. It allows the US to go into great depth without the destructive forces of inflation.
>
>The message from the intervention was clear: Listen to us, or else we bring democracy :)

This is exactly why/how Lybia got their 'democracy' as well. Syria was on a verge of being gifted (or shafted) democracy
but there came evil dictator Putin to spoil all the (NeoCons) fun...

We are yet to see what kind of toys will be flying out of a pram now... Hope it does not end up being intercontinental missiles... :-\