Edited sentence: According to this thesis, American power is a temporary and illusory phenomenon.Instead, the US prefers to wait on the sidelines until both sides have fought themselves to a stalemate, while profiting by selling arms and other essential services.Many commentators have stressed the close relationship between military expansionism and economic hegemony, arguing that warfare is only undertaken in order to obtain profit.Once this ends, the old Power Blocs in Europe and Asia will reassert themselves.Proponents of this point of view suggest that risky expansionist military adventures, current Iraq War excluded, are conspicuously absent from American history, and that, far from being a powerful military country, the US has assiduously avoided war unless it was with a wholly insignificant opponent.The powerful position which the US occupies in world affairs was handed to it after the World Wars as a result of the disruption of all other major trading countries, and the US has done its best to maintain this position by fostering a 'status quo' during the Cold War.US actions in both World Wars are cited in support of this view, together with the tendency of the US military to make excessive claims for their weapons systems which are not fulfilled in practice