I agree with your comparison of the USS Maine ad Tonkin Bay but I think the Cold War use of bombers had a different purpose. We were not trying to provoke a nuclear war but to prevent one. Having NORAD bombers always in striking position was a reminder the Soviets that they could not initiate nuclear war without us having a prepared response.

As a technical point, the P-3 collided with a Chinese fighter, I think you made a typographical error there. I have never read and do not agree that Bush's response to 9/11 was related to that incident. I also don't know what Bush could have done about the P-3 incident. It was not a provocation to war and to have blown it out of proportion would have had far reaching economic, political and possibly war consequences that were not worth pursing. I would say restraint was the right response.

Bush's action in Afghanistan was necessary and proper given the fact that the Taliban gave Osama bin Laden a haven to train the 9/11 terrorists. Bin Laden was in Afghanistan as well and Bush had an obligation to try and capture/kill him.

My personal opinion on Iraq was that it was not really about WMDs but an effort to create a democracy in the Middle East to counteract fundamentalist Islam. It was messy and Obama was premature in pulling out which gave is ISIS. Whether it was a good idea in the first place is another matter.