War fatigue grows in the United States

Though the American public is looking inward, the United States is not returning to isolationism. Nearly half of Americans believe the United States should take a less active role in the outside world, according to pollsters at The Wall Street Journal and NBC on Wednesday. This percentage is higher than the same poll showed over the past two decades. The poll suggests that renewed tensions between the United States and Russia over the Ukraine crisis have not triggered a broader public desire for the United States to take a stronger stand in defense of Ukraine’s new pro-Western government. And this poll was only the latest of several showing that, apparently, more Americans are coming to see the wisdom of George Washington’s farewell warning, “Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?” Needless to say, Washington’s admonition has a global application today.

At the same time, another report Wednesday submits a major reason Americans are unconcerned with matters abroad: continued economic sluggishness. The US economy grew by a measly 0.1 percent in the first quarter of the year, according to the Commerce Department. However distorted by bad winter weather, the underlying message of the (always rough) quarterly data is that the economy is stagnant. High numbers of workers have stopped looking for work despite drops in the headline unemployment rate, and financial insecurity remains rampant among American households. With Americans so concerned with incomes and jobs, it is little wonder why they seem disinterested in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.