America used to broadly support freedom. Not anymore.

Over America’s long history, Americans have often hesitated to support foreign wars and international machinations. George Washington’s Farewell Address warning against entangling alliances cast a long shadow. But from the nation’s beginnings, Americans have usually known whom to root for — those who seek freedom — and whom to condemn — those who try to crush liberty.

Across the United States, you will find statues honoring people such as the 18th-century Polish patriot Thaddeus Kosciuszko and the 19th-century Hungarian freedom fighter Lajos Kossuth, who sought liberation for their people from the Russian and Habsburg empires — and who found enthusiastic support in an America that was still a young and weak nation. When Germany invaded Belgium in 1914, even though it initially stayed out of the war, America organized what was then the largest food aid effort in history to help the victim of aggression. During the Cold War, though it could not help militarily, Washington refused to recognize the Soviet annexation of the three Baltic republics, which are now proud and independent nations. America as a superpower sometimes acted unwisely — in places such as Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan — but even in those cases, it saw its involvement as the protection of freedom and democracy.

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