'I'm sorry, but I don't think someone who doesn't live and pay taxes in the US gets to tell us that we are responsible for what happens in southeast Asia.'

sorry luv, it goes with the territory. Tyrants have to be stood up to and its never a pleasant duty. sometimes like JFK's dad, we don't want the job. sometimes you find yourself with unpleasant allies. But if we don't do it - the world gets even more unsafe.

As for sitting faraway in another country - that's the American prerogative. We had nearly two years of getting bombed in ww2 before America came in after pearl harbour. We got bombed again (admittedly not on the same scale) largely with American financed bombs in the 70's and 80's during the IRA's military campaign.

I'm pretty damn sure it was nicer to be America than in the eye of those particular storms. The way the tourists stopped coming after every IRA campaign convinces me that quite a few Americans thought the same.