Separating Truth from fantasy

How does one separate Truth from fantasy?
Is there an infallible test we can use to determine whether, for example, the installation of freedom and democracy was the true reason U.S. troops were sent to invade Iraq?
Is it possible to simply trust your intuitive, "gut" feeling about such things?
We don't have to totally abandon logic in favor of intuition, because both are tools of consciousness. The ideal state of discernment is a balance between the two.
Using the example of Iraq, does it even seem logical that an administration which has steadily nibbled away at personal freedoms at home and does not seem to honor the principles of democracy that call for citizen challenges to government abuses would risk the lives of thousands of U.S. troops to install democracy in a distant nation that has never known the phenomenon? Why Iraq? Why not Sudan? Or China?
Well, you can draw your own conclusions about this. The point is that we all need to use discernment when evaluating anything we hear.
There have been many prophecies about the world to come. Some of them focus on the year 2012. The year 2000 never figured in ancient prophecies, but many people believed that either Jesus would return or something dire would happen that year. In both the ancient Mayan and ancient East Indian calendars, 2012 was seen as the year in which the current age will end and a new world will be born. First, however, the old world must wither away. Corrupt institutions and dysfunctional belief systems will crumble, it's been said. Current events seem to reflect this devolution. We'll know in about six years.
Google 2012 and you'll be amazed at what comes up.
So, does this mean a savior is about to appear, or that the Antichrist is lurking somewhere out there? Or, might it be that each of us has savior/antichrist potential within us?
It's something to think about.