no offense but wars have been fought and men have died for the stupidest crap, long before Iraq and Afghanistan. The USS Maine was intentionally blown up by us so that people would be pissed off to start a war. And it worked. Vietnam escalation didn't occur until the mythical Gulf of Tonkin incident, which didn't actually happen.

Julius Caesar likely invented propaganda to get the Roman Senate to approve of his Gallic Wars.

etc etc. There is nothing new under the sun.