I do remember the US chucking tomahawks at one of Assads airfields had the entire US media proclaiming “his first presidential act”.

American PEOPLE don’t like war.

“Why, of course, the people don’t want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship…

Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”

– Hermann Goering (as told to Gustav Gilbert during the Nuremberg trials)

A decent amount clearly do, actually.

I remember how in discussion prior to the Iraq invasion, there was always someone going on about the need to kill Saddam, or how we needed to invade to prevent terrorist groups (ha!).

Now on my Facebook feed it's all about revenge on Iran...

Evidence seems to suggest otherwise. Unless you think the war-lovers are not people, which is pretty harsh, but perhaps what they deserve.

That's why they keep it over there.

Where are the massive protests?

Americans may still not war but I think they have lost the ability to voice it, through protest or votes. Just like here in Australia. We're complacent, because things have actually been pretty good for a while. Now that things are looking a bit dicey, we find our voice is out of practice and no one knows what to do, or they are too comfortable to want to risk losing what they have.

I always figured complacency would be what undoes a democracy, as leaders and the media got better at keeping everyone entertained while they sell off the economy and wage foreign wars without our tax money but not our consent.

“Of course the people don’t want war. But after all, it’s the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it’s a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.”

— Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials

(Goering was the Nazi in charge of the German air force in WWII)