Pontius,
I fear the Western Democracies have allowed their distaste for War to prevent them from seeing that War is sometimes the only response to a threat. Just as in fighting forest fires, a rapid, overwhelming early response prevents the fire from becoming a large and costly event.
Perhaps, we took the wrong view by down sizing our military capabilities and willingess to maintain that overwhelming response capability and now the threat sees us as being vulnerable.
Far better we waste vast sums of money maintaining a strong military and never use it in war than to waste vast sums of money running to hotspots pitching buckets of water onto fires rather than making them all ten alarm fires.
Do you think Iran, Syria, and their proxies would be doing what they are now if they knew with certainty we in the West had the will and capability to conquer them as was done in the old days?
We have allowed ourselves to become weak and thus have become vulnerable.
Starting with the embassy bombings in Lebanon and the Marine barracks bombing that killed 241 US Servicemen, we have never gone after Hizbollah. No wonder they think little of us.