Wrong. Everyone wants to think the Netherlands is just a fine dandy place and that's what the US can be. Well, the other scenario and more likely given the demographics and economics of the USA compared to the Netherlands is Yemen. ISIS hasn't destroyed Yemen. Khat destroyed Yemen. Khat, a mind altering stimulant much less addictive than marijuana, was/is an existential threat to Yemen. One thing federal governments are supposed to do is to defend their people from existential threats. I'm not an anarchist living off the grid. I'm a conservative and republican and I live in a society where my life and well being depends on other people to be responsible on how they carry themselves and their work and their state of mind. Parents in this election talk about doing right by their kids. I bet the vast majority of swing vote responsible parents would say that drugs are bad for their kids and worry about their kids' exposure to drugs. Drugs aren't liberty, on the contrary they steal it from you. And btw, so does prostitution.
Well, that's the problem with Libertarians, Republicans, and Democrats. I make no bones that I could be described as a neoconservative. That term has a negative connotation. I don't really care for terms but more accurately I believe in speak softly carry a big stick, peace through strength, an unmatched military that we have proven to use when we say we will and when we warn bad actors, and use our military to either support other countries/allies or prosecute operations when allies do not have the ability in crises where there is a humanitarian moral imperative to do so. The cost, while very high, of investing and building our military is much less than the loss of superpower influence and leverage on our economy and security.
There might be a time, Stat, when fighting two wars on two fronts might be necessary and unfortunately the preferred option than to not fight and suffer more casualties and hardship. And the best way to avoid that tough choice in the first place is to be ready for it and active in the world as a leader. The fact is we are citizens of a superpower. There are negatives to that - superpowers are targets. But as evidenced by the millions of immigrants who had decided to become Americans, there are huge benefits to being a superpower that countries like Argentina, Portugal, Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, even the UK do not have.
In this globalized world of asymmetric threats and weapons, being a superpower is probably more important than it ever was for our people. Our enemies - Russia, China, and ISIS, still subscribe to the philosophy of conquest. Does that mean we should be fighting the Russians outside St. Petersburg in the dead of winter or China in the jungles of South Asia? No, but it means we shouldn't stick are heads in the sand thinking security stops at the border.
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Last edited: Oct 28, 2016