This essay appears in Foreign Policy.

Offering a very different look at the unpopular Iraq War, Roberts, professor of public administration at Syracuse University, points out the hypocrisies surrounding some of the "myths" about the war on terror. Even if it was devised by neoconservatives, the war also fell under the "desires and preferences of the American people," he contends. Taxes are down, the draft was avoided and "regulatory burdens" minimized, leading Roberts to suggest that this war has been easier on us than wars past. "Americans might try to pin their problems on a few powerful neocons," Roberts writes. "In truth, though, they must shoulder some of the blame."

In the recent presentation by the Comptroller General, there is a plot of annual defense spending over the last century, with the figures adjusted for inflation. This plot shows that expenditures in 2006 have climbed to 67% of the peak of World War II (in 1944-1945).