Lame..
The US has more say over Europe than Europe has say over the US.. Calm down so I can make this clear..
You aren't going to tell me to keep my nose out of Euro politics period, especially while plenty of your libby Euro noses are in my countries politics..
So.. You softie leftist better buck up quick and find some real men to form a decent military with, which I figure you will struggle with..
OR.. Give me my money, for providing for the security or your families for you if you yourselves are incapable..
The US intervened in WW1 because various financial groups had lent the allies a whack of money, and their defeat might have meant they would not get it back, so....off went the doughboys.
The US intervened in WW2 because it seemed pretty likely, about 1940-41, that virulent global fascist forces would win the war, and then be in charge of the entire old world, Europe, Asia, Africa. This would have left the US in an untenably weak position, and a very dangerous one within a generation. So again, it became in America's strong self interest to intervene.
Similar situation with the cold war, except fascism was now replaced by communism. A communist world with a lone America with wagons circled in N America would have been a very weak position, and so treaties were formed.
Today China and Russia seem to still want to play the great power game, one in which the US could be disadvantaged, and so various alliances are deemed to be profitable and useful is stopping that.
Have you detected a note of altruism or generosity so far? Let me know if you do.
NATO today has substantial forces, although some countries are not paying the 2% of GDP promised for defense, it is true. In fact, in today's world it is really nuclear deterrents that are the ultimate arbitrator of a stop or go signal to mayhem. Putin would be taking a huge risk in some sort of conventional invasion, as with Russian economic status, not to mention raging cynicism, it's possible that Russian officers would be more interested in selling their weapons than using them, quite aside from the ominous possibility of nuclear retaliation.
So a US withdrawal from the world really comes down to more nuclear weapons- for Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Europe, some others. The problem with that for the US is, aside from the fact that now the world would be a much more unstable place, is that the US would then become just another among many. One nuclear power among a slew of them. A large economy, but soon to be overtaken by China, and the EU and Japan only a bit behind. What happens to US influence in the world then?
