The United States has, since it's inception had a hand in international issues and while I fully admit our track record also reflects political naivete (as in trying to turn tribal based societies into western-style democracies) any nation that has ever attempted isolationism loses out in the end.
Since you make that concession, I'll make one as well.
To an extent, I believe we do have to play a part in international affairs as well as have a military presence overseas. It's the part where we go overboard protecting every whiny piss-ant country around or let our not so intelligent intelligence departments stick their nose in the affairs of foreign countries.
Where we probably differ is to what extent we should be involved. In my opinion, we'd be a lot further ahead if we scaled back about 80-90% of our overseas efforts.
