The leaders of today have likely spent decades building up their positions of power and climbing the political ladder. Yet, often their ideology and political mindset are formed much earlier in their lives. It's worth considering the possibility that many individuals go through a formative phase in their lives when their worldview becomes somewhat set in stone. Yet, it may take decades for them to be in positions of power where they are able to enact policies expressing their ideologies - ideologies that may, by then, be decades out of step with the current culture.
Following this line of thinking, I wondered for example how the various members of George W Bush's cabinet may have had their ideologies largely formed as impressionable teenagers during World War II. It's interesting, for example, that this cabinet is comprised of so-called Chicken-hawks. I can imagine people such as Donald Rumsfeld as children - being too young to be involved in and exposed to the horrors of World War II, while at the same time being swept up in the excitement created by the rampant patriotic propaganda and the glorifying of war and of America's pivotal role in that war. It seems inevitable then that, as leaders many decades later, they would be simultaneously interested in rekindling the role of America as the savior of mankind and freedom while at the same time being cavalier about entering into wars that will result in massive destruction and suffering.