[silver_silver]

> the position you're implying, that the Depression was caused by the lack of a NATO-type alliance

Not caused by, but the economy didn’t fully recover until all the wartime production started, and the measures that had been put in place to curb unemployment had been short term solutions with only a limited effect

> I hope Europeans take my comments on HN as a wake-up call that even Democrats like me are getting fed up with them.

You see the problem with you people is that you’ve strong armed your way into everyone’s business for the past century, trying to change cultures and ways of life, far beyond simple alliances - only to now turn around and abandon your so-called allies as soon as they become inconvenient for you. I say this as an African living in Europe who experienced firsthand one of your regime changes and subsequent cutting of ties when the new regime didn’t align

[0xDEAFBEAD]

>Not caused by, but the economy didn’t fully recover until all the wartime production started, and the measures that had been put in place to curb unemployment had been short term solutions with only a limited effect

Are you seriously arguing that we need military commitments so we can hope that war breaks out right around the time of an economic depression?

It seems to me that you've basically conceded the point that the US doesn't benefit from its involvement in Europe, and its involvement is simply out of misplaced idealism. I'm just saying, we should stop doing the idealism.

We both agree that the idealism is misplaced and America is a nation of fools. All I'm saying is you should accept the logical consequence of your position, and agree with me that us fools should stop wrecking everything in the name of "freedom and democracy" nonsense.

>You see the problem with you people is that you’ve strong armed your way into everyone’s business for the past century, trying to change cultures and ways of life, far beyond simple alliances - only to now turn around and abandon your so-called allies as soon as they become inconvenient for you. I say this as an African living in Europe who experienced firsthand one of your regime changes and subsequent cutting of ties when the new regime didn’t align

Europeans mostly complain about our influence on the continent, despite 80 years of peace and prosperity post-WW2. If that's not enough to please them, nothing ever will be.

But in any case: We are very bad at foreign policy and we should do less of it. That's my position. We aren't going to get any better.

The post-WW2 experiment, initiated by Dwight Eisenhower, to have a more interventionist foreign policy, has been a failure, and at this point everyone agrees on this. Most of all, it has been a failure for the USA -- our relative GDP has fallen, meaning the rest of the world got rich quicker than we did. (This demonstrates how we have been manipulating the global economic system for our own benefit, naturally.)

As a voter, I don't have the capability or wisdom necessary to reform the US foreign policy establishment. Best I can do is to hope for less foreign policy.

Everything is always America's fault, as you yourself say. No other countries have agency or responsibility. For example, America is the only country that ever seeks to influence others.

America is the only country which seeks to ally with leaders that are aligned with it. Other countries don't care whether their partners are on the same page or not. This is a uniquely American trait. Other countries just choose who to ally with based on whether they like the design of another nation's flag.

Regardless of how things go with e.g. Ukraine, America will always to blame. We will be to blame no matter what we do. So we might as well focus on helping ourselves, and mind our own business.