Do we shield our fears through aggression?

As Anar has politely reminded me in a comment to the previous blog, I have become quiet in my blog.

من تنبل نیستم. با کام و با شاپنگ برای انار من خیلی مشغول داشتم.

Anyways, I have been following the recent developments in the Middle East. One thing that seemed to be apparent to me was that the nation who is bullying is the one who is really scared and hence act disproportionately to protect their interest. Take the case of Israel. Israel is very worried about the attacks on their "homeland" from Lebanon. This has prompted them to wage many wars going well into their neighbours land under their self-proclaimed effort of "defending themselves". Another case in point, the United States, is "very worried" about Iran's nuclear policy and are therefore pushing the whole world to enforce severe sanctions on Iran at the very least to stop their effort. Do these acts of aggression suggest that the nations who are bullying the "weak" do indeed feel very insecure about themselves? Does this act of aggression help them feel more secure? Clearly, alienating your neighbor by reducing their land to rubble or curbing someone else’s development (if indeed it is a real peaceful development as Iran claim's) is only making you less secure rather than the other way around. But does the act of aggression, of being able to demonstrate your hegemony, appease your fear?

This fact also seems to manifest rather heavily at the individual level. Any person, by nature, seems to pursue some things in their life very aggressively. For example, suppose that I am really scared about a new colleague who seems to accomplish more and appears to be someone against whom I would have to compete in the future for perhaps getting a promotion. Then I am more likely to show some domination on issues where I can. I am more likely to pursue my work and that in the common area of interest between us very aggressively so that my position is secure. The question here is when I pursue something very aggressively, am I aware that I feel threatened, or do I try to escape my fear by focusing my energy on aggression? Is aggression really my only solution to overcome the fear? When I am inwardly very scared and insecure am I using aggression as an aegis?