The primary objective of any living organism is survival. The primary objective of any nation is protection of its citizenship and defense of its borders. If the nation does not survive, any secondary goal is useless.
Nations are not moral and never have been. There has never been a nation that acted morally when self defense was necessay, not even the USA.
The problem is that the USA states that it is moral. We never can be, not if we are to protect our citizens in the most effective fashion.
The choice is not the easy choice between good and evil as some would believe. It is between doing evil to protect yourself against a greater evil. It is doing evil against those who would do evil againt you.
Unfortunately, those who are protected often times do not realize what is sometimes, or often, needed to provide that level of protection.
I am reminded of a female yuppie from New York, who was with me on a guided tour of an archeological project. One of the Stanford students on the project said that he was joining the Army after graduation. She said, "Why would you waste your life doing that?" I felt like saying, "To protect your rights, you little liberal assh*le!" True story which shows how disconnected some people are from what others sacrifice for our defense.
