If only we had followed George Washington about staying out of foreign entanglements.
Ukraine, Taiwan and others are not worth all of us dying in a nuclear and EMP war.
If we abandon our allies and let China and Russia dominate Asia and Europe respectively, our chances of dying in a nuclear war go up not down.
Things change, countries can tell combat forces with cannon to load up and then deliver them across the world in 18 hours, and at the same time have submarines, and Aircraft carriers following them, while home based missiles are landing on the enemy’s military bases and ports.
Benjamin Franklin 1784
“And where is the Prince who can afford so to cover his Country with Troops for its Defense, as that Ten Thousand Men descending from the Clouds, might not in many Places do an infinite deal of Mischief, before a Force could be brought together to repel them?”
The British bore the Empire burden after we threw them off then the British got into World War I brought the USA in and the rest is history.
>> If only we had followed George Washington about staying out
>> of foreign entanglements.
We are no longer a nation of planters, farmers, hunters/trappers and small shop artisans that we were in George Washington times.
We depend on global trade, oil and global information flow, all of the things that did not exist in the 18th century.
We will not be safe behind the two oceans if a hegemon arises either in Europe or in Asia.
For that reason we tacitly supported Japan waging a war against Imperial Russia in 1905 and smacked down Germany trying to rise to hegemon status, twice. Japan got the wrong idea from that war, also they tried the Perl Harbor thing for the 1st time in 1905 and thought it was a magic bullet.
Then we fought and contained the USSR in coalition with the West Europe.
In retrospect, should have probably listened more closely to George Kennan and Kissinger on post-Soviet arrangements in Eastern Europe, but alas that ship has sailed.
And we cannot allow anyone to use nuclear blackmail. Once you allow that, it will be done again and again.
Not sure if there are any good options at this point. Only bad and really bad.
Running away with our tail between our legs simply makes that more likely.
What worked for a small, remote country at the 18th Century doesn't necessarily work in the 21st: sometimes the foreigners want to tangle with you.
In addition, we haven't meddled with China: in fact, we've bent over backwards to treat them well since 1972. We wound up creating a monster. As Machiavelli argued, counting on gratitude in human affairs is simply foolish.