The US isn't bent on colonization like the European examples you cited. The colonial powers went to foreign lands with the intention of staying as long as possible to reap economic benefits (access to resources and new markets). The US has no intention of colonizing Iraq any more than we colonized Japan or Western Europe. Our goal is to help Iraq set up a free government as fast as possible and to leave. It took over 5 years to do that for Germany and Japan following WWII. It seems rather immature to expect results in less than a year in Iraq.

As for Israel, the Palestineans were offered their own homeland and they rejected it twice. Israel wants to exist. The Palestineans want them dead. There isn't a lot of room for compromise between those two positions, so terrorists attacks happen and Israel keeps striking back. What realistic alternative do they have?

Terrorism persists because it is an effective technique. However, it isn't always done by the poor. Osama bin Laden is worth several hundred million dollars. Several of the countries that sponsor terrorism are rich with oil wealth (e.g. Libya, Saudi Arabia).

The fact that the US still has troops in Europe almost 60 years after the end of WWII isn't due to colonization, it's due to the fact that most of Europe is unwilling to pick up the burden of providing for their own defense. When someone like myself suggests it's high time we pulled most of our military personnel out of Europe, we get called isolationists. Getting criticized for wanting to remove military forces - sure is a funny way to run an empire.