Since the Vietnam War we've had really only one justified conflict (Kuwait).

Afghanistan wasn't justified?!?! Afghanistan has turned into a clusterfuck, but there is doubt that an invasion was inevitable. The problem is that no one knew what to do once the old regime was toppled, and we never defined what a victory should look like. At the time, support for Afghan intervention was through the roof, and IMO justifiably so. People are sick of it now, because they don't understand the end game, and the administration appears not to either.

The Gulf War was very popular, but Bush was smart enough to define an objective, and leave once the objective was attained. Total casualties in the war form enemy fire were negligible. Who knows what would have happened if even one thousand US troops would have died.

Unless China is looking for a more radical form of population control, this conflict will not turn into WWIII. I think its far more likely that WWIII will begin in the Mid-East when Israel finally gets fed up with the civil war in Syria.