You'd think, if they were any good at it, they could scotch the problems at home by invading something here, too.

You are not looking at "the real motive". You are looking at a result of an application of the Law of Unintended Consequences: the Rule of Collateral Results. To wit: "Insertion of political energy into one political system from another political system by its leader(s), when said leadership is acting for personal political purposes, will result in a certain amount of overspill of collateral ideas from the inserting system into the receiving system. Such overspill cannot be channelled or controlled, and so must be spun by the leadership on both sides."

I'm reading American Dynasty by Kevin Phillips. He has a different theory about the war, and the Bush Administration. And the Bush Administration, Part 1.

He used to be a Republican. Not any more: the Bush Administration, Parts 1 & 2, cured him. All the spin from the Bush merry-go-round made him too dizzy to stay on the horse.

He's not a Democrat, either.

Regards--
Mary Anne