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Sure, maybe. It doesn't follow from that that you can just let people blow stuff up and shrug your shoulders.
The US is and has always been, at least in part, a maritime merchant republic. All such nations throughout history were inevitably getting embroiled in affairs abroad because their domestic politics rely on trade and trade relies on stable, non-hostile trading partners and open sea lanes. This is why the Monroe doctrine exists and why the US got involved in the Middle East almost instantly upon becoming a nation.
You could wish for some alternative version of the United States that was not this way, but you would be disappointed. "That is the way it was and will be. That way and not some other way."
This is by no means me endorsing or supporting any given US military action. In fact I am broadly critical of US military interventions! But the idea that a merchant maritime republic wouldn't regularly be performing military actions overseas, including regime change in extreme cases, is a fantasy.
China does more overseas trade than the US. They are the biggest trading partner with almost every country in the middle east. They didn't have to waste trillions fighting forever wars there to dominate trade.
The US spent two trillion in Iraq for China to be Iraqs biggest oil buyer. Venezuela was not a threat to American martime trade.
Well, first off, I don't think this is true (by value). Secondly, we didn't have to waste trillions fighting forever wars over there to dominate trade either. Thirdly, China is actually expanding its military footprint in the Middle East, inclusive of building at least one military base there and performing anti-piracy patrols, so I think it's decidedly too soon to tell if they can avoid getting dragged into a military operation there.
I am not arguing that it was. I am arguing that merchant maritime republics regularly perform military actions overseas (securing maritime trade being one of the reasons said republics do that, but not the only reason). China (which, on top of the military actions I mentioned above, regularly both uses force and conducts military operations short of war in its maritime near-environs) is a good example that proves my point.
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