Never heard of war that wasn't smeared by other side. When rooskies bombed Finland, Molotov told they're delivering bread baskets to starving Finns.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov_bread_basket
When there's a conflict, I generally look at the "weight" of the opponents. Can you, with a straight face, call Iraq a real opponent or even threat for the US? More than that, do you think the US really needed allies to invade Iraq? (except for trying to use them to legitimize the war).
And your whole notion about "hot events" is ridiculous. It wasn't like Iraq in 2003 was USSR v2 and only the US intervention stopped it from taking over half of the world...