As for exasperation with Europe and dissatisfaction with Iraq, we damn well told the US so, the US decided it knew better, and look what happened. What do you want? We should have followed the US into a criminal clusterfuck? There should be Irish troops dying in IED explosions because Bush wanted rid of Saddam? What are you talking about?
Above, adsf, I think, glibly tells us the US public would gladly withdraw from various parts of the world, which, in fact, is a political and economic impossibility for any US government. The US would lose most influence and become a completely different place. Better? I doubt it. More reactionary and estranged from the rest of the world. The US public has long been addicted to power. Just imagine if they couldn't qualify themselves as 'the richest and most powerful country in the world'.
What a droll idea: blaming Europe for the US horror show in Iraq. The notion is nuts.
This Hanson guy has the Greek tic: ancient Greece is the cradle of western civilization and therefore encapsulates everything that followed. You can see this as a humanistic pendant of the legend of Genesis. Was he born rich? Anyway, philologists of this bent have always struck me as irritatingly snobbish.
I may be mistaken but I thought the U.S. got rich in WW I by lending money to France, effectively transforming the US from a debtor country to a creditor one.
I think history does show us that a number of European countries did benefit from their colonies, in the sense of bringing back goods to the mother country from the colonies. I don't say that pejoratively, but just factually.
Get involved abroad and profit, see Iraq.
I certainly agree with you that Europe can't be blamed for Iraq.
But I think you underestimate the number of Americans who would prefer a much more isolationist view for America than our current policies. Unfortunately I can't recall the poll, but in the last month I saw one with some discussion that showed 1/3 of liberals and 1/3 of conservatives preferred this--though for different reasons. And this has been an American view for hundreds of years. And I would think a large group in the middle would go along with this, if it was at all realistic in the sense of being able to renegotiate current commitments. We're starting to pull troops out of Europe, Germany first, I believe. I don't see why, with the end of the Cold War, we should have a military presence in Europe. The Europeans don't need us there, and I don't think they really want us there. So why be there? Let's leave--not recklessly or urgently, but with some appropriate planning with the EU so things we are doing that are useful there, they can pick up those activities if they choose.
Please don't see me as defending this gentleman's article, either. I'm just making these points above.
