Latest experiment is socialism ending the same as always...

Wow looks like this thread is as entertaining as ever.

South Korea might disagree. Certainly the Kurds did. And now we are leaving Germany - against the German government's request.

And of course, far-flung interests also means trade and commerce. We've seen numerous attacks on that, from the Barbary Pirates to the U-boats in WWI and WWII that the US helped against even before joining the war to the Gulf of Aden and the Somali pirates.

I'm not arguing against the many and broad negatives associated with US hegemony in the last few decades. We've made some monstrous mistakes.

But that's not the only side of it.

And you are about to see what happens when US power withdraws and is replaced by the likes of regional powers in Russia, China, and Iran.

And, I would expect, more of a cost to your personal interests in your economies, as more of your resources will be needed to address the change in balance of power.

Disagree with what, exactly? You just named three countries you were actually defending, two of whom Trump's USA betrayed. Seems to me each of those is a case in point.

They are the very definition of 'far-flung interests.' Yes, some of those are indeed defense. And honestly, I'm not sure when I get my check for the US protecting South Korea from the North for the last 70 years.

Again, there are TONS of things you can legitimately criticize, even excoriate, the US military and foreign policy for. But the fact we've are spread across the globe isn't inherently one of them - it depends on what we are doing there.

Of course not, nor has anyone in this thread claimed otherwise. The question was whether 'defense' is and whether it should be a good description of what the DOF, and by extension the US military, does.

They do what most similar polities do.

They "defend" against others who are in turn "defending" against them.

In other words squabble and bicker over resources.