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Notes -
I reject the notion that the US is an "empire", at least since the winding down of the Iraq war. US allies are free to end their associations with the US (like NATO) without fear of getting invaded by the US. The same was not true of conventional empires.
I broadly support this, but the best way to do this is by winning the battle for public opinion on things like rejecting blank-slatism, postmodernism, and the corrupt implementation of the Civil Rights Acts. Instead, US conservatives have gone from the party of endless occupations in the Middle East ~20 years ago to rejecting democracy (or at least the results of democratic elections) and allying with America's enemies today.
The issue isn't that Russia and China are going to be influential. That's bad given their repugnant authoritarianism, but it's nothing that would merit more than a Cold War 2 style competition. The main issue is that both have made clear they want to conquer their neighbors by force. That principle has been one of the best things to come out of Pax Americana barring the mistake of the '03 Iraq invasion. Reverting the world to the pre 1945 days where strong nations annexed weaker ones would be terrible for lots of reasons.
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