The Roman Empire fell, but its Italian core eventually enjoyed a Renaissance.
The Ottoman Empire fell, but its Turkish core went on to a revitalized, nation state.
The Japanese Empire fell, but was replaced by a prosperous nation state.
It might be a good thing for America to shed its foreign "obligations," and limit its focus to its own national self-interest.
Our empire cost us our Republic.
I usually loath comparisons to the ‘fall’ of Rome, most of the time people promulgating about the ‘fall’ think that hordes of goths sacked the civilized world in 476, amongst other cases of bad teaching and bad history when I hear most people say “History teaches..”
But one comparison I do think apt, if more subtle. A Republic really only works for a singular people. A Republic requires a cultural homogeneity regarding language, borders, culture, and values.
You can have an empire, or a Republic.
After WW2, we chose empire. Arguably in response to the USSR, possibly at the manipulative behest of some shadowy nascent ‘deep state’ as well, maybe with the contribution of the hubris of our victory in the war, probably a combination of those and the sheer energy of our capitalist system still intact with a lot of the rest of the world shattered.
But we lost our Republic when we gained an empire. A Republic requires those ruled by it to take seriously their roles in it; conquered or colonized peoples don’t, won’t, and have no reason to believe and behave in accordance with the ideals of our founders (nor do a whole lot of residents and ‘citizens’).
800 or so bases in 80 or so countries is not a Republic; it might be a necessity in a cold war (or post cold war, or neo cold war) globalized world with fanatic ideologies and deadly weapons unimagined by our Founding Fathers, but if we want to restore the empire, we have to give up on nation building, regime change and ‘Free Trade’ that drives down the wages of our workers to the point of competition with peoples who don’t have our values and ethos.