Friedman on US, Europe, The World

Great talk. Key takeaways:

US lost in Afganistan

NATO is for Europe, but its bureucracy bogs down US, so it prefers to act outside it, bileterally. Such a bilateral relation / mission is maintaining troops in Romania, Poland, in Europe's eastern front, against Russia.

US would rather have Europeans 'defend' the East.

US's unwritten priority is freedom of movement in the seas / oceans. Because a sufficiently strong power can use the seas to reach US.

Friedman is no war-monger. He is happy with less soldiers around the globe.

His talk outlines that strategy is made for the worst case scenario which can have the worst impact. If you agree with the 'worst case', then the rest flows from there.

US has never been isolationist. American people are basically isolationsts, Bill Clinton said once, he is correct on this one.

I add people's and the needs of governance can differ, in that case people's solutions do not matter. Their needs obviously do, and who they chose as their leader. Dont like the solution, change the leader. But IMO the need for primacy of the seas at the government level will never change, no matter who is the leader.