Being armed to the teeth with cutting edge high tech weaponry doesn't make a country a superpower.
The US dominance on the world scene over the past 50 years has been mainly economic but backed up with military power.

The US now faces huge internal economic problems related to its level of debt owed to mainly China and Japan. Militarily, the war in Iraq, and other involvement in the far away Middle East (which poses no military threat to USA), is for purely economic reasons.

On a broader world scale, the slow decline in the US hegemony as the worlds established trading currency will further undermine USAs position of world financial dominance. So long as traded goods are priced in $USs and USA can simply print more $USs and sell them as loans to other countries the US will continue to be able to live above its means.

However, should the rest of the world reject the $US as the international trading currency (particularly for oil), it would seriously diminish the world demand for $USs. Which, of course, would mean a much lower exchange rate for the $US and a lower standard of living for US citizens as all their imported consumer goods became more expensive. And, of course, the US government of the day would have to print many more $USs to back up further international loans.

This very scenario above is in progress at the moment. there is a slow but steady move away from the $US as the worlds major trading currency and the $US is on a slide. But its not all bad news for the country as eventually it will settle down to a point where domestically produced goods will become competitive with the imported stuff. It will just cost a lot more, that's all. But will be great for improving the unemployment figures.

Iraq has been USAs last ditch military effort to prop up their economy now based on debt and dependent on world paying for oil in $USs, (which of course the USA would like to have control over). Saddam Hussein's downfall was when he demanded payment for his countries oil in $Euros. Iran has been pushing OPEC to change to $Euros as has Venezuela. However, Saudi Arabia as the senior OPEC producer at the moment has over ruled them and is sticking with the $US.
Ironically, both Iran and Venezuela are democracies, while Saudi Arabia is ruled by one of the most extreme Muslim dictatorships denounced by human rights organizations around the world. yet, Saudi Arabia, or rather the Royal dictators of Saudi Arabia are one of USAs closest allies in the Middle East. While Iran is painted as a hostile military enemy. Actually, Iran is no threat what so ever to USA militarily, but could certainly be an economic threat when Saudi Arabia runs out of cheap to produce oil in the next couple of decades.

The point to be made here is that the worlds military superpower is not so much concerned about democracy, justice, or the moral high ground, anywhere, least of all in the Middle East, but more concerned about world economic dominance and the repercussions on the domestic situation.