Seems to me that, if we want to reduce our obligations as policeman of the world, other countries have to get over their end of history delusion and build their own defenses. The worst thing about utop;ian dreamers is that they confuse fantasy with reality especially when it comes to war and peace.
The problem with superpowers is that they want to pull all the strings, mount people against each other, and divide to rule.
The western powers created Khomeini and sent him from a Paris suburb to Teheran to topple the best ally the West had at that time. Containment policy of the Soviet Union, they said.
The Qaeda thing, put in place by the Saudis and the US, went out of leach and those who created that monster have to assume their responsibilities. Al Qaeda is using amounts of money counted not in gigas but in teras, coming from the same people who call themselves and the US administration call them “allies”.
Now you cannot stop Al Qaeda unless you eradicate their ideology which happens to be that of the Saudi Wahabi Islam. Nuke Mekka or transform it? It is your deal now. God bless the soul of General Dwight Eisenhower who warned the world from the military industrial complex.
End of History, Francis Fukuyama? may be in another dimension. Like it or not, we all got caught in this spiral called clash of civilizations. BTW civilizations or barbarisms?