The Importance Of US Intervention

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The U.S. has been the world's sole superpower for the last 15 years. We spend approximately $597 billion a year on our military, more than China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom combined(Garthoff). We are told by politicians that America must maintain stability in our world, acting as the “world's policeman”. Does it have to be that way? Will the world collapse without U.S. intervention?
What role should the United States play in the world? For much of the 20th century the American government has sought to prevent a single country from taking power in Europe and Asia. To that end the United States fought in the first and second world wars and waged a four decade long cold war with the Soviet Union. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 ended the last serious threat, and the primary goal of the American foreign policy had been achieved. Does America still have to involve itself in foreign affairs? Some will argue that America is the world's leader and no one else is capable of doing this.
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Some feel the United States should act as ambassadors of liberty and should spread democracy to places that suffer from communism or an authoritarian dictator (Marion). Usually this is done by war. In the 1960’s the United States deployed hundreds of thousands of troops to South Vietnam, a democracy, to defend it from the invading North Vietnamese communist. The war dragged on for eight years until it ended after peace agreements. 58,220 Americans had been killed and two years later Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese. Was the cost of so many American lives worth it? Since then, the U.S has fought two wars in Iraq, a war in Afghanistan, and has bombed 20 other