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When the Cold War ended two decades ago there was a widespread belief that the greatest threat to U.S. troops would be boredom. It seemed they faced a future with little to do besides polishing their boots and staging the occasional military exercise.

Yet U.S. presidents are calling on the military more often than ever, with U.S. forces carrying out more than a dozen separate operations since the first Gulf War in Iraq in 1991.

President Obama now says he's ready to take action against Syria, but he faces a Congress and a public skeptical about another military adventure in the Middle East, even if it's being billed as a limited operation.

"I know well that we are weary of war," Obama said on Saturday, stressing that any action would not include sending in U.S. ground troops.

Given this backdrop, why is the U.S. military being ordered into action so frequently, often for missions like Syria that are considered optional?

Analysts offer up a host of reasons:

A Messy World: During the Cold War, the U.S. and the Soviet Union often managed to impose order by propping up authoritarian leaders. No one saw this system as ideal, but it often prevented conflicts from erupting or spreading.

Syria offers a good example. As a superpower, the Soviets staunchly backed the late Syrian president, Hafez Assad, for many years. A much weaker Russia still supports his son, Bashar Assad, but this hasn't kept Syria or other Arab states from sliding into chaos.

U.S. military intervention in Syria would have been highly improbable during the Cold War because it could have provoked a major confrontation with the Soviets. Now the U.S. sees itself as the lone guarantor of world order and does not have to worry about a superpower rivalry.

"The Cold War acted as a governing force. The U.S. and the Soviets were often cautious because they were always concerned about an escalation to a nuclear war," said Jim Dubik, a retired Army lieutenant general now with the Institute for the Study of War in Washington.

More On Syria

Parallels

Limited U.S. Strikes ... Followed By Major Attacks On U.S.

When goods arrive in Houston, they may come in containers stacked high on huge ships or strung out on long lines of rail cars. But to get to the customer, those goods need to be put on trucks and driven to their final destinations.

And now with the oil and gas sectors booming, the demand for truckers is soaring. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says oil delivered to refineries by trucks shot up 38 percent between 2011 and 2012.

But while the need for truckers is growing, the ranks of well-trained drivers are shrinking as baby boomers hit retirement age.

"The driver pool is aging, and there are not enough young drivers coming out of truck-driving school to replace those drivers, at the same time that the demand for freight is increasing," said Brian Fielkow, president of Jetco Delivery, a Houston-based trucking company.

The American Trucking Association says about 3 million truckers are on the nation's roads today, but companies need about 30,000 more. And that shortage may balloon in coming years as the boomer-retirement wave slams into the energy-sector surge.

The trade association's latest figures show competition for drivers has become ferocious, causing truckers to flip from one employer to another. The most recent report shows the annual turnover rate among truckers is 97 percent.

With competition intense, earnings have been improving for truckers. James Stone, who has spent the past decade servicing firefighting equipment, wants to get into the field. He is studying for his commercial truck driver's license at San Jacinto College in Pasadena, Texas.

Economy

A Labor Mismatch Means Trucking Jobs Go Unfilled

For the past year and a half, Mike Hallatt has been driving across the U.S.-Canada border and back, bringing loads of groceries back to Vancouver. There's no food shortage in Canada — but there's an absolute lack of Trader Joe's grocery stores, and that created an opening for an entrepreneur who doesn't mind making a long drive.

Originally called Pirate Joe's, Hallatt's store serves a niche market: Canadians who wish Trader Joe's was in their country and who will pay a bit extra for triple ginger snaps and fanciful trail mixes.

Trader Joe's is not pleased. It filed a lawsuit this summer, complaining that Pirate Joe's harms the grocer's brand by selling its products outside its control and confusing customers. In response, Hallatt changed the store's name to _irate Joe's.

"I bought the stuff at full retail. I own it," Hallatt says. "I get to do with it whatever I want to, including reselling it to Canadians. My right to do this is unassailable."

And, he says, "There is no confusion in the marketplace. Pirate Joe's, now _irate Joe's, is blatant and unambiguous."

But Hallatt adds that he doesn't see the big chain, which is owned by the same German family that owns the Aldi supermarkets, as an enemy. And he says the company is damaging its own brand by pursuing him in court. Hallatt has spoken to numerous news outlets about the case, including NPR member stations in Southern California and New Hampshire.

"I would prefer Trader Joe's accept my long-standing offer to follow guidance on how they would like me to operate," Hallatt says in an email.

As for reselling Trader Joe's products, he says he's far from alone.

"I discovered there are many people running resale businesses on eBay and Amazon," Hallatt says. "The amount online resellers manage to mark up the prices is the stuff of legend among TJ's employees."

More intriguingly, he adds, "There are three grocery stores reselling Trader Joe's products in the U.S. that I know of."

The Vancouver store's motto carved into its threshold reads, "Better than nothing" — with a trademark symbol identifying it as a protected slogan. It seems that the Canadians who crave Trader Joe's treats would agree.

As Hallatt says, "Business is brisk!"

The unique business model led us to get in touch with Hallatt. Below is a lightly edited version of his answers to our questions. Trader Joe's has not been speaking publicly about the active lawsuit.

NPR: Will there be a hearing on Trader Joe's lawsuit soon?

Hallatt: "We filed a motion to dismiss a few weeks ago, they responded [last] Monday and we [responded] to that. The court will take a look at it soon I hope. Parallel to that we are in the early stages of discovery ahead of a jury trial to resolve their complaint — if it comes to that."

I assume people get really attached to some products. What are your biggest sellers?

"We have people come in and say things like, "My babies," as they pull items off the shelf. I'm amazed how many specific and emphatic requests we have received in the past year and a half. There are at least a few people attached to every product we carry, and if I don't have it sitting on the shelf I hear about it.

"I'm reluctant to open on a day we are out of stock on Ridge Cut Salt & Pepper Potato Chips, for example.

"Once a week we get a call from a guy who asks only, 'Is it safe?' This is code for Low Calorie Lemonade. There are maybe 25 people in Vancouver who know about that stuff. It's fantastic."

Have you been told to leave Trader Joe's stores?

"Not formally from corporate. When the first squeeze came around the time of the cease and desist letter last year, it was the manager of the Bellingham [Wash.] store who apologetically asked me not to shop there anymore.

"I'm still OK if I'm shopping for myself or my family, although my cart gets looked over.

"I tell people who are 'helping' me shop not to clear out shelves but to shop like a typical shopper in there, stocking up. Get one or two of a set of items, bag them yourself and get out of there."

Do you have to portion supplies out to several vehicles?

"For too long it was just my Honda Element. The record was 98 bags of groceries. A few were on my lap. I've since up/downgraded to a '93 E-250 extended van. [It has a] straight six, so I need earplugs over 50 mph. Ninety-eight bags barely dents capacity.

"We call our product acquisition program 'Plan C' and we have a sign in the store that reads, 'Don't ask because we can't tell you.' "

What are the export laws for bringing groceries over the border?

"Pretty much anything I can buy in the U.S., I can legally import into Canada. There are permits required for meat, seafood and dairy. We stick to vegetarian packaged nonperishable items.

"Packaging compliance is also required and we are working closely with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to ensure we are fully compliant."

Do you have any plans to expand?

"_irate Joe's is a unique response to the market Trader Joe's created in Vancouver when it opened a store just over the border in Bellingham. I feel they should either open a store up here or leave the free market to sort itself out. Requiring a 160-mile round trip across an international border to get their products is anything but neighborly."

Each Friday we round up the big conversations in tech and culture during the week that was. We also revisit the work that appeared on this blog and highlight what we're reading from our fellow technology writers and observers across the Internet.

ICYMI

The Syrian Electronic Army returned to the public consciousness after it was suspected of hacking the domain server of The New York Times, Huffington Post and Twitter. The Times was taken out for some users for upwards of 18 hours. We offered a primer on the group and what its motivations are (read: political). As fast-food workers protested across the country, it reminded us of automated fast-food restaurants in places like Amsterdam. Our weekly innovation pick was the cuddle mattress. The design lets your arm fall in between slats so it doesn't go numb while cuddling your partner.

On the air, Steve Henn explained the #NSAPickupLines that are all the rage in the twitterverse, Laura Sydell explored whether streaming music can make real money, and I reported on bossless offices — a move in the tech industry toward flatter hierarchies and team-based management to facilitate faster innovation. It's especially timely now, as the reports about Microsoft's unappealing workplace culture seem the complete opposite of emerging tech companies, like Medium.

The Big Conversation(s)

The week led off with news that the digital divide persists. The annual Pew Research Center study on broadband penetration reveals that 30 percent of American adults still aren't connected to high-speed broadband, either because of choice — those above age 70 are least likely to be connected — or because of socioeconomic status. But smartphones are making inroads. Ten percent of Americans say they don't have broadband at home but access the Intenet via smartphone. Midweek, news that Google co-founder Sergey Brin and his wife were splitting, reportedly because of his relationship with a Google Glass marketing officer, led to personality-based intrigue that spilled into larger business questions. That's because, as Quartz's Christopher Mims details, a top Google employee's "defection" to work for the "Apple of China" is entangled with Brin's love life.

What's Catching Our Eye

The Columbus Dispatch: DeWine Backs Use of Facial Recognition Software

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is having to review law enforcement's use of facial recognition software. The program matches suspects' photos with those in the Ohio driver's license photo database; civil liberties groups and some Ohioans are crying foul.

Salon: Will robots make us sexist?

Salon makes a case for how robots are confirming gender norms rather than challenging them.

CNNMoney: Facebook friends could change your credit score

Some lenders see social connections as a good indicator of a person's creditworthiness, but a credit expert says FICO scores are a better predictor of lending risk.