Who's this 'we'? If you mean the government, you're wrong. Government always ruins everything it touches. And that includes saving the world. If you mean 'you and I', then I accept your point. And the first thing 'you and I' can do is to fight to get the government out the saving-the-world business, just like George Washington said.
"We" is of course individuals. We should get the government out of the saving the world business the way Magdalene Albright sees it, yes. What I am talking about is a conflict with a hostile civilization, in which we have a distinct danger of perishing ourselves. In that, alliances matter. If we signaled to them that we won't stand up to them in the Middle East, they would correctly assume that we won't stand up in Europe, and then we become a kind of fortress America that everyone wants to come and loot.