I certainly hope so. If Iraq becomes another Vietnam 1975, our foreign policy will be torn to shreds. We might as well go isolationist because no one would trust us to help them, and thus won't be our ally.
Many of us have watched this movie before. So did most of the world. Has no on learned ANYTHING from our disgraceful pull out or Vietnam. "Peace with Honor." About as honest a term as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The French for instance?
The US needs a period of rest. Our divided society, negative MSM and leftwing anti war movement will undermind our war efforts no matter what the fight is because we are a democratic nation with all the vulnerabilities to dissent and sedition. Keeping out of overseas fights means we can save money on military operations and overseas aid. The US as a society needs to sort our what she wants. Job security versus free trade has emerged as a major defining issue that our government (Dems and GOP) can no longer ignore and unilaterally act upon behind the scenes anymore. Let the world be left to their own devices and within 20 years they will beg for US help and intervention (just like WWII). This time before we open our wallets we will remind our critics of what they called us, their anti American attitudes and make their people eat crap before we help them. Let us stop being generous idiots and demand something in return before we give out military, and humanitarian aid as well as the blood of our young soldiers. HOWEVER during this period of "isolation" we should be defending our national interest by cultivating proxy nations to fight the Islamo facists, the Chinese, the Russians and anti US latino nations. It probably is a cheaper strategy and there will be no deaths of US soldiers for the MSM and leftwing to use to beat our war efforts to death.