Whether is a pretext or not is less important. I don’t mind if the U.S is overthrowing a dictatorship for his own interests while using democracy and human rights as a pretext if at least is trying to enforce a human rights and democracy agenda once the new gov and usually U.S does it with more or less success.

You can’t really expect people to go to war with no national interest. I think for a while democracy was more than a pretext as it helped the U.S keep away communism from its own shores.