If you think Americans in general have a strong preference for peace, you have not been paying attention; nor have you been immersing yourself in history books.

The country in which Americans take such pride today is the product of people who were willing, and often eager, to kill anyone who obstructed what they presumed to be their Manifest Destiny.

And since 1898, having subdued a vast, resource-rich continent and confined its surviving aboriginal people to desolate tribal reservations, they have made the entire world their blood-soaked sandbox. 

My Journey To The Heart of Darkness