What should America’s role be in the world?

Can you say, hot topic? There are many that cling to the ideology of our forefathers that continental independence is as much about the right to speech, as it is to bear arms, and everything that falls between these two.  As America evolved, however, either out of necessity and/or design, we are allied to nations that are also in a struggle for their own independence, and lays the foundation in which provides a means to and end.  In this regard, others cling to America as being a global custodian, per say, that is underpaid and overworked, and the last to be thanked for cleaning up other conflicts.  Yet both camps depend on resources that neither can do without, nor would be willing to entertain, such that America as a whole depends on oil imports.  The bottom line is driven by our own sense of security wherein oil is a national resource, one that this nation would grind to a halt without it.  So, while both debate this issue into the next Presidential debate, both are keenly aware that our role abroad is to maintain, secure, and even defend this resource.