We should not ask anyone else to risk their blood and treasure on our behalf, we can take care of ourselves, thank you.
Russia has literally lost tens of millions from aggressors originating from the West (check Napoleon and Hitler, for starters). Why antagonize them? What American interest does that serve?
Please tell me how a defensive network in Poland threatens Mother Russia.
No, we can't
We cannot sit here in America and expect the oceans on either side of us to act as moats
Most Americans figured that out by 1933.
They sure figured it out on Dec 7 1941.
And again on Sep 11, 2001.
When the WTC was destroyed, we could not “take care of ourselves”
Just one small current example of a much larger issue of why we need “friends” or at least “allies” in this world- allies who are not intimidated from helping us because of threats from an opposing power like Russia
the enemy who attacked our mainland was entrenched in Afghanistan, using the taliban government as its shield Could we “take care of that” ourselves?
We could not even begin to move troops to Afghanistan without a complicated logistics network that depends on the cooperation of other nations. We could not fly over without bases and refueling rights. We did not have access to massive amounts of weapons without base rights to move them and store them over there.
You cannot take care of all our offshore enemies “by ourselves” through “deterrence”- nor by sitting home and launching cruise missiles a couple thousand miles, or remotely driving predators. Even those must be based offshore.
And guess who allows us to station assets offshore? Our allies without whom we could not “go it alone”.
Our allies - who always face great pressure to terminate agreements with us, due to threats from Russian China, now Iran and North Korea, and al Qaeda.
No. It doesn't.
It must be prevented at all costs.