I have not read the entire article, but I would suggest that on the point of continuing Washington's opinion that Europe is of little interest to us, that philosophy became obsolete the moment European countries had missiles and nuclear/atomic weapons that could take us out.
Things which threaten us were, are and always will be of interest. That is not what he was referring to. But the internal politics of every land involve matters that have little interest to us. There is all the difference in the world between dealing with threats, and simply cultivating other people's hatred by meddling in their internal affairs. (And it is not as though we benefit when we do meddle. For some bizarre reason, instead of rebuilding Iraq out of their Oil future revenues, the Administration is running up America's debt. Will we ever see any of that money back--much less actually benefit?) Read Washington paragraph O.