Do we always have to be a perpetual state of war?

The saber rattling over Iran and how and when it will be struck by Israeli/American jets to destroy its allegedly Nuclear program keeps on growing with various times given for this year. Although tough sanctions are starting to bit the Iranian economy but still it seems that it is not enough to deter them to stop their nuclear program. Everybody who matters is pleading with the Israelis to postpone their attack and let the sanctions work. But my question is why is the U.S. always is in a state of war or want to in one. If you pick up the U.S. history, since 1941 we have been in constant state of war. If you don’t believe let’s start analyzing if we are what I am saying. Starting from the Pearl Harbor attack of December 1941, we entered World War II wholeheartedly.

After the war ended in 1945, we entered into a Cold war with the then Soviet Union which led us into physical wars in Korea from 1950 and then we went into Vietnam, during the interim time, we were still fighting a cold war with clandestine funds and proxies almost everywhere. We almost went to war with the Soviets in the Cuban Missile crisis in early 1960s. From Vietnam still being in the Cold war , we invaded Panama, Grenada, went to fund the Jihadists in the Afghan war of the early 1980s, started another war called the drug war, helped the Nicaraguans with the Iran-Contra affairs weapons.