re: #178 NO SMOCKING GUN!

Well, the US empire was also built by armies and navies that rolled over the Axis then provided the backbone to NATO.

I should caveate a bit. There was a lot of empire building by the US in the 1800s. It’s why we have a whole lot of land including islands in the Pacific, which did include the Philippines. After WW2, we were the last big country standing, and we set up a lot of bases in Europe. You are correct in the sense that our influence is strongest where we’ve become the big part of the local defense, but our “conquering” of Europe was quite a bit different than, say, Rome’s.