[rookonaut]

One viewpoint is that the USA are a crutch to the rest of the world.

Another viewpoint would be that this is based on self-interest.

The USA bombing Iraq because Hussein wanted to sell oil in another currency other than the USD and leaving the so called rest of the world with the humantarian crisis would be one counter example to the crutch-theory.

[sixQuarks]

You're on the right track, but the reason you gave for invading Iraq is very naive. Research "Project for the New American Century", whose founders were very high up in the GW Bush administration. You'll see that the strategies they outlined in 1997 plays out quite well. Toppling Iran has yet to happen, but Syria and Iraq have gone according to plan.

[skh]

From my perspective it has become a symbiotic relationship. The U.S. maintains the Pax Americana at great financial expense but does so for the benefits it provides. It’s not an altruistic act. Europe and Japan get benefits too. One of the benefits for Europeans is that they get to avoid the messy moral situations that come from wielding such power. Go back to the mess in former Yugoslavia in the 90s to see how the Europeans made a mess of things trying solve it on their own. I don’t want to get into a debate on the merits o that intervention but the situation wasn’t resolved to the liking of the UK, France, Germany, etc. until the U.S. got involved.

[huffmsa]

It's definitely a two way street, but there's less incentive now for the US to stay involved. We're a net petroleum exporter now, Texas of all places is adopting renewables like crazy (proving their viability), highly autonomous and mechanized manufacturing is almost comparable to outsourced production and we don't need soyuz for space launches (soon).

All of that combined, plus the growing need to address our own impoverished parts of the country is making a lot of people in the US think it's time to let Europe do it's own thing.