> The world is pretty brutal and liberal democracy is a value shared by a minority of humanity. If liberal democracy wants to survive it sometimes has to defend

> The world is pretty brutal and liberal democracy is a value shared by a minority of humanity. If liberal democracy wants to survive it sometimes has to defend itself. The minimum it needs is an army to protect its people. Yes, I agree to a large extent. Most of the world's strong extant states were forged in war (or is a quasi vassal state to one which was). We didn't get here by being nice to each other. A strong defensive military is something I think every state would be wise to have, so long as human nature remains what it is... we're not wizened philosopher-kings, more just horny, hungry apes. The distinction I draw is in foreign interference in matters that do not directly threaten us. I would rather see us resign from our role as world police/bully and focus more on domestic affairs, severely scaling back our force projection abilities (namely, carrier groups whose homeland defense uses are limited). I don't believe in this idea that "the only way to protect ourselves is to shape the world in our image, and forcibly subjugate those who will not willingly convert". Yes, there are shitty dictators out there, there is real evil in the world, but we're no angels and we've done a really shitty job of trying to make other countries better (with limited exceptions, like post-WW2 Japan and Germany). The thing is, sustainable peace through militant nationalism is also a pipe dream. It's never stable for long and it creates vast power differentials that breeds discontent and violence; eventually it bleeds back over to us. I'd bet, measured across a few decades, our forays in Afghanistan and Iraq will create more terrorists than we've actually stopped... our administrations think in 4-8 year terms, not 20+, incurring foreign policy debts that later generations will have to try to pay off in an increasingly unstable world compounded by not just virally-amplified ideologies but also skyrocketing inequality and climate change. There is no military force that can keep an unstable, discontent world of ~8 billion apes in check for long. Absent either a world dictatorship or peaceful multilateral democracies, I'd settle for regional hegemonies and old-school spheres of influence instead... we stay out of China's way, they stay out of ours, we trade peacefully. That means some nations will fall, whether it's Israel (possible, but unlikely?) or Taiwan (probably), Ukraine, etc. Sucks for those countries, but by % of world population, I believe that will result in greater overall peace and prosperity. Shrug. It's all pipe dreams. Always has been. Some of us just have bigger pipes, I guess.