Originally Posted by Aladdin Sane

The United States is the reason the other western countries can have luxuries like socialized health care and country club prisons. Contrary to popular belief, mankind has not entered some new enlightened age where the lion and the lamb have laid down together. The only thing standing between the relative international stability we see today and global chaos is the U.S. Sixth Fleet and the American will to use it. If the United States didn't spill the treasure and blood necessary to slam some little murderous despot up against the wall every 10 years or so, western countries that depend on the United States for defense would be in deep shit. Most "allies" depend on the United States to keep the sea lanes open and the skyways safe. If Canada was unable to deliver its lumber across the ocean it wouldn't be long before its prosperity would end.

I'm betting it will happen again before all who are reading this reach old age: there will arise yet another genocidal utopian ideal that will threaten civilization, and the only country that will be able (and willing) to stop it will be the USA. So yes, in that sense, we are an anachronism.