America is a fortunate country, with the great expanse of the Atlantic ocean separating it far from England, which was a proximate reason as to why America was able to not only declare its independence from Great Britain, but also was victorious in its cause. So too is the West Coast of America, protected from Asian machinations, to which the Pacific Ocean's great expanse, precluded Japan from attacking our mainland during World War II. America shares its border on two sides, with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south, of which, America's relationship with each neighbor is not only very close and cordial, but beneficial to all parties.
America was last at war with Canada during the War of 1812, to which Canada at that time, acted as a proxy of Great Britain. The war is generally considered to have ended in a draw, to which, neither side gained or lost any land with the upshot of the war being ultimately the demilitarization of the Canadian and the United States border skirmishes and the beginning of normalization for these two English speaking nations. In regards to Mexico, the Mexican-American war of 1846-1848 was a war in which defeated Mexico ultimately ceded to America huge swaths of its land, which ultimately made up all or part of the States of: Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming, along with Mexico conceding Texas' independence and annexation to America, an independent war first begun in 1835. Later, during Mexico's revolutionary period of 1910-1919, there were many skirmishes along the American and Mexico borders, and subsequently small battles between the two countries, before a lasting peace between these nations was initiated.
Yet, despite over two centuries of peace with Canada, and one century of peace with Mexico, the United States has a Defense budget of nearly $600 billion, to which the next closest nation in expenditures for Defense is China, a nation of more than one billion more people than America, and whose defense budget is still under $200 billion. Neither nation contiguous to America is a threat to America, in fact, it can be stated, unequivocally, that American relations with its neighbors are about as good as they possibly could be, yet America spends billions upon billions of dollars on Defense, not really to protect itself domestically, but essentially to assert itself internationally and to be the sole dominant military power in the world.
All of this Defense spending and constant military international presence throughout the world has meant that the United States has become endlessly engaged in skirmishes, battles, and wars, of one form or another, year after year after year. President Washington in his Farewell Address of 1796, warned us to: "…steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world…" and further that: "Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side….", yet these prescient warnings from the Founding Father of our nation are completely ignored today to the overall detriment of this great nation.
America is not Europe, America is not the Middle East, America is not the Far East, and further to the point, America is not located in Europe or the Middle East or the Far East, yet America behaves as if it does. In actual fact, almost all of the war that America insists on involving itself in isn't really necessary, yet it is done as a matter of course, as a matter of policy, and sold to the public as if it is our patriotic duty to do so. It isn't, it never was, it isn't right, and it's fundamentally at odds to what this great republic was meant to stand for, which is liberty and justice for all, and not for the establishment of an imperial empire.