The cause for wars is irrelevant to the populace. Its the results that matter.

If America had, somehow, won Vietnam, would people give a spit about the Gulf of Tonkin incident and other shit done at the time to get more direct American military involvement in the region?

Again, look at the Spanish-American War. If anything, the hysteria at the time with the U.S.S. Maine being blown up by a Spanish mine is now silly, since most believe an explosion, probably the engine itself, blew up. Of course, that is irrelevant, since the Americans went to war in April 1898, and a few months later, we got some nice islands.

Now at Iraq, are we winning? If we are, how close in direct measurements? Better yet, who else do we have to blow up?