War

In one of the books I recently read (Caucasus: Mountain Men, Holy Warriors), I found a passage from Leo Tolstoy (author of Anna Karenina & War and Peace), who wrote about a 19th century warrior from the Caucasus named Hadji Murad (published in 1904). Murad had been fighting against the Russian empire who had been attempting to extend their empire into the Caucasus. This observation was:

"What always happens when a state, having large-scale military strength, enters into relations with a primitive, small peoples, living their own independent life. Under the pretext of self-defence (even though attacks are provoked by the powerful neighbour), or the pretext of civilizing the ways of a savage people (even though the savage people are living a life incomparably better and more peacable than the civilizers) or else under some other pretext, the servants of large military states commit all sorts of villainy against small peoples, while maintaining that one cannot deal with them otherwise."

And while this does not necessarily apply to our missions into Iraq, it is important for us to know why we are fighting. Is it for the defense of our nation, or that of ambition?