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PM makes an excellent point -- in history, we never know how alternative scenarios will work out. In the 1930s, everyone thought appeasement was the way to go, because they had been through a brutal war 20 years earlier and Germany had been fucked at Versailles and legitimate grievances. In the long run, it probably would have been better to squash Hitler in the 30s, but then likely Chamberlain would be remembered as a war monger and Hitler as a martyr. No one knows what might have followed in later years.

Right now, America is in an untenable situation because we are the world's only superpower: if we don't police the world, we are accused of being greedy and selfish; if we do police the world we are called warmongers. What's going on in the Middle East and Central Asia has been simmering for 50 years, but the Soviets always kept an iron lid on it. With the Soviets gone all the different groups in that area are fighting for dominance. And since we don't have a consistent foreign policy, the rest of the world perceives us as weak and will continue to challenge us. If you're the biggest kid on the street, people are going to come after you one way or the other.