Rationales for Military Aggression

"We seem to spend more time training for seizure than for prevention--like the Commies already had the stuff and we had to get it back."
--Col William "Mutt" Henderson (Seven Days In May)

At least one of three reasons is usually offered when it is desired to apply military force in a foreign land:

1) Protecting national interests. The foreign land has resources (e.g., oil) that the invader needs or desires.

2) Nation building. The invader seeks to 'spread democracy' or some other characteristic to a foreign land.

3) National security. The foreign land contains a perceived threat that, it is thought, must be neutralized in a preemptive manner.

The problem with each of these is that they condone the use of offensive rather than defensive force. Each is an excuse, a rationalization, for aggression.