What do you mean by pretense?
The word pretense to me means “we’re gonna actually try this and let’s see how it goes”
The United States has literally never done that and we know that because internal documentations for pretty much anything always have some kind of American benefit Nexus it is not based on any type of foundational belief that transcends the concept of “we’re gonna do whatever the people who are the loudest owners of the political system of the United States want to do”
Everything else including: Powell going to the UN with a vile full of rice is just straight up unabashed unequivocal propaganda
Just read the official names of the American military operations and the pretense aspect will be impossible to miss.
The definition of pretense is (from Google):
an attempt to make something that is not the case appear true. E.g. "his anger is masked by a pretence that all is well"