Call me naive but how is this not a self-fulfilling prophesy? If we parade around with our chest out, perpetual looking for a dust up, is that not what we're going to find? When you can engage in multiple simultaneous "conflicts" and that becomes the status quo, how exactly more of the same a wise decision for going forward?

Given the USA's history, the better question is: why wouldn't Russia and China do that?

Put another way: If you were the Native Americans wouldn't you still be wishing you embraced the gun sooner rather than later?