Personally, I feel sympathethic to Thrawn's opinion on this. The US did pretty much between 78-2001, [iran, Honduras, Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Iraq, the list goes on and on.] Before starting another crusade to expand "democracy", "justice" and "freedom", the U.S. should really take a look at the problems within their borders. There are other countries in the world that can take over the police role that the US occupies. (The Latinamerican Coalition in Haiti, headed by Brazil). As for Bush's handlers, it'll be hard to get them out of office, as they are the people in charge of industry, etc. The same elites that do profit from the aggressive external policies of the US. As for the Oil Reserves, OPEC does control just under 40% of the worlds Oil Reserves, the big powers of the world control more than half of it, the thing is that the OPEC countries "produce" more oil than the amount the actually consume, quite opposite is the situation of the US, Russia and the EU, who actually consume more than what the "produce". The problem is that the same elites that direct the different governments insist on oil rather than figuring out new fuel sources. (Hydrogen engine, anyone?) As for Guantanamo, Iraqi Prisoners and other scandals, well the media will scream in outrage each time something like this is found out, but in the end nothing happens. Fanatism and Patriotism, remarkably similar if you think about it. Oh well. Both Arabs and U.S. Americans are almost similarly fanatical. Some would blow themselves up in the name of Alá, the others go willinig to blow themselves up in the name of a president and a flag. "Nothing becomes a murderer as easy as one's country." F. Dürrenmatt.