this foreign policy doctrine are not a new issue under discussion, as the use of "pre-emptive force and preventive war is both a political response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and consistent with the history of active U.S. interventionism"3. The main novelty of the issue however is the fact that it is placed at the heart of the public opinion "in the form of a very public national security doctrine"4. Therefore, from this point of view the war in Iraq was publicly stated as being part and in complete agreement with this foreign policy framework.
             The American public is by definition one in which the exceptionality perception is taken at extremes. Starting from the end of the First World War the US public has been eager in engaging in new struggles for the defense of universal values such as the ones promoted by the United Nations or different other international organizations promoting peace and human dignity. In most cases, the public was easily convinced by its political leaders to follow a path of interve
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