“In his farewell address, Washington told us to avoid foreign entanglements.”
In Washington’s time that approach made some sense yet Washington himself understood the importance of allies in time of war. He had no hesitation when he leveraged the French Navy to outmaneuver the British and force a satisfactory end to our Revolutionary War.
When the Civil War came along the isolationist philosophy held strong and the Europeans were free to support the Confederacy because they were not ‘entangled’ with the USA.
See, some of these ‘foreign entanglements’ serve to keep our friends close.
And some serve to keep our potential enemies closer.
Never more true than it is today.