So my question remains. What would you suggest the U.S. have done about the Iraq problem to avoid 'empire' as you call it.
When we start with reality as it is, now, our foreign policy is being handled brilliantly. If we weren't dependent on ten million barrels a day of imported oil, and weren't so unwilling to do what it takes to get past the "Oil Age", then it might develop that the whole Middle East would not have anything anyone else might want except perhaps for hand tyed rugs bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year instead of oil's tens of millions a day. The strategic situation would be very different indeed.