I've only been alive for some 20-odd years, but it seems to me that the United States - on a public-facing front since a few presidents before my time - is very much a tempest on the world stage. We have the sheer size, influence, finances and military strength to rival or eclipse almost any other nation on the planet, and yet such power gets wielded with all the tact and nuance of a drunken rhino. Looking at other countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, even South America to a degree, I see peoples who are heavily invested in, understanding of, and perceptive of the world around them, the players involved, and what their motivations are. The degree to which the United States continues to bumble about in self-imposed ignorance as if this was somehow a mark of greatness is mind boggling to me.