It is hard to handicap this kind of game, when you really do not understand the objectives and the nature of it, and use all the wrong sources to discover what is really happening.
Every empire in its official discourse has said it is not like the others, that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and that it uses force only as a last resort. And, sadder still, there always is a chorus of willing intellectuals to say calming words about benign or altruistic empires, as if one shouldn't one's eyes watching the destruction and the misery and death brought by the latest 'mission civilisatrice.' Edward W. Said