So.......... you advocate weakening American power to............. do what?MKSheppard wrote: Or more cold-bloodedly, we could just let the entire world collapse in on
itself, and let everyone and their single-source economic systems based
on a few commodities simply die off, while we're only merely wounded.
That's right, what? You do know that your actions have only slided more political power to other countries, which will hurt US interests sooner or later, even domestically, weakening the US but ultimately won't harm your enemies?
Europe is already stagnant. Japan is stagnant. China is rising, and if it incoporates Taiwan, without US intervention, it won't be damaged badly and may even acquire technical and economic benefits. Russia may be hurt..... if the US defines isolation as also not giving finanicial aid, which I find to be a keystone of many "isolationists"(ergo, those who argue that America is helping the world, and if its pulls out............). It will be solved, by Russia being forced to sell off more and more of her technical secrets and arms to sustain herself, as well as prosituting her resources to China and other rich oligarchies elsewhere.
The political vacumn left by the US military support, which in several cases mean supporting the government in power(Phillipines, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait) may be exploited by others, who may harm US interests.
Its not the military intervention. Its the military shield. To put it simply, the American shield acts as a serious damper on people who would attempt to try gunboat diplomacy, because any act that would hurt US interests risks US intervention. As such, it projects stability and confidence into the region, allowing for smooth economic investment.I dont think most people understand that the military interventions the US pulls every few years are insignificant compared to the economic manipulation that is the true source of its power.
As Wong pointed out, US military intervention is not the source of world stability, and it's also not the source of US supremecy. The US could become militarily isolationist and fairly little would change, so long as it continued to serve its own interests, usually at the expense of others, through controlling stakes in institutions such as the IMF and World Bank, and through the power of green room negotiations, the real power, in the WTO. And through simple economic intimidation, nobody can afford to get on the bad side of the US economically.