I always find these lines of thought so ... not nuanced. I'm as Howard Zinn as anyone else but people probably should remember the world is the least violent it has ever been largely because of America.

We left troops in Europe post ww2 because we couldn't deal with the fact that Europe was just following the last 1500 years or beating the shit out of itself and to ensure peace at home, we had to sit there and keep telling people to keep their hands to themselves.

We try to maintain a presence in SEA because we recognize that allowing another super power reign over a region that might be overtly hostile to us results in shit like Pearl Harbor.

We get dirty and shitty and do questionable things all the time in the process, but the overarching goal is the same, prevent massive scale war so we can continue to conduct the business of getting on with life. Trade, innovation, culture, etc.

The majority of the world loves it and that's the only reason it works. We all rise together when we participate in this project and we have earned enough trust throughout the last century that governments let us be the ultimate referee precisely because we don't just willy nilly take things over. When we do, there really is an attempt to rebuild and rejoin.

If this weren't the case, morons like Duterte wouldn't say the stupid shit they say. Venezuela wouldn't make the absurd and insulting claims they do. It is EXACTLY why Trump scares the majority of the world btw - he doesn't understand how the last 100 years has been shaped by this idea and is ready to throw all that trust away.

But anyway, remember that next time you want to talk about how america fucks everything up that you might do well to remember it's this way because everyone else was much worse. And by that I mean, holy shit, you can't make this up kind of fucked up worse.