Why, so they can do what they’ve always wanted to do?
George Washington, while warning us against being entangled in alliances with those whose ideology is enmity to ours, also warned against our enemies entertaining a “perception of weakness” with respect to the USA, and that we “ought not to indulge a persuasion that, contrary to the order of human events, (we) will forever keep at a distance those painful appeals to arms with which the history of every other nation abounds”, particularly if we remove ourselves from areas of the globe where they are eager to move into (this is why they loved Obama so much, due to his doing just that).
If we become “more isolationist”, then other powers become more imperialistic. It’s happened more than once in the history of the USA.
That’s a pretty tortured understanding of Washington’s words. “will forever keep at a distance those painful appeals to arms with which the history of every other nation abounds”,
He is simply stating that we should not shrink back when challenged as we soon were with Barbary pirates interfering with our trade, or Brits interfering with our shipping and kidnapping sailors. He was the polar opposite of the idea that we should occupy Europe or engage in wars of sport and convenience worldwide.
You are living in 1898, imagining that if we do not grab some empire, that the Euros will. The correct interpretation of Washington is that everyone should know we will fight IF our actual interests were challenged. But that we would never engage in wars on behalf of European nations.
Europe is no friend of the USA. This includes the Brits. All of them have one goal and one goal only. Use the USA to be the muscle to achieve EU policy goals. This explains the Balkans, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, etc.
Very intriguing point. I usually tend to be in the middle and it is a difficult question. In a revisionist sense, I question WWI and II and most of post war "entanglements" even though I served and would never hesitate to do it again.
It would be hard to call the USA isolationist if we had a 1,000 ship Navy. We don’t need no stinking bases.