Replies

"I guess I do have some isolationist tendencies, but I would argue that this conversation is hardly proof of that."

Post 46: "1. Stop intervening in foreign countries' affairs. Bring all the troops back and put them on the southern border."

Barbary Pirates, Quasi War, those could be termed interfering in the 'affairs' of other nations.

Point is, pulling our troops out of everywhere is not strategically sound, nor wise.
We do have interests overseas, and not having troops within a few hours transport distance of possible trouble spots is a bad idea.

"but we were in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait." -post 77 in response to me saying that 9/11 didn't happen due to us being in Afghanistan or Iraq.
In essence, your response is saying that it happened due to us being in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

IF we didn't have troops in Saudi Arabia, we would not have been able to topple Saddam.

Nah, the Barbary Pirates were a Naval action. At that time there were separate Naval Departments - for, among other things, protecting America's shipping interests and War Departments for, well, waging war. A Declaration of War was a commitment of the resources of the War Department. A President could order limited Naval actions without a declaration of war.

And it was OBL who said he was waging war against the US because of the troops in Saudi Arabia.