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The world got into its present shape by worrying about opinions of others, while the cancer spread. Then the wake-up call for us happened - we know longer care about the world opinion factor.
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no.. it got into its present shape because of the aftermath of the cold war and blowback from OUR policies. the cold war created a power vaccuum.. our policies gave saddam wmd's, and assisted and enabled much of what he did. our policies have earned us great disdain by incessant support for israel no matter what it does. our policies have supported various tyrannies so that we can get our oil. the notion that the world is the way it is because we cared about the opinions of others is intellectually bankrupt.
we also won't pull out of europe, because by doing that, we'd lose our foothold there. we are playing the role of global hegemon, and a hostile europe should be held in check (from the point of view of the pro-hegemon crowd that is).
by thumbing our nose at the rest of the world, the only thing we're doing is isolating ourselves. sure, countries may choose to deal with us, but only on terms that are favorable to them. they aren't going to do us any favors - a point that's missed on the bushistas. i doubt they'll even help us now if we were in need.