That is not true that single events change the course of history and I would like to do everything I can to discourage such nonsense.  Not even Pearl Harbor really changed American culture (although both changed a few opinions, for the most part the population and culture stayed the same).

It is a myth of history that these historic events really change anything.  The laws, the culture, the political system, the religions, the population, the economy -- they all continue.  Real change happens much more slowly, even over generations.  Would-be world revolutionaries suffer from the delusion that some dramatic event can make the world go their way -- they always fail.

The United States, as is the case in all countries where the population has a significant voice in government, is strongly in favor of peace, and tends to violate this only under considerable provocation, and then the population, after a few years, begins to agitate (usually for selfish reasons -- being in a state of war is a tough business) for withdrawal.  It is the reason democracies rarely if ever go to war with each other and is the reason they are not able to sustain the sort of long-term war that would be needed to win in a place like Vietnam or the Middle East or against the Boers (to chose an example other than the US).  Military victories just don't do the job, nor do changes of regime.  Cultural change, as was done in Japan and Germany, is what works.

One final remark; those who oppose violent involvements always call for some sort of "exit strategy."  Of course there can be none such other than victory.  Otherwise one is merely telling the enemy what to do to get the Americans out of the picture.

Of course no one advocates war (I would hope).  Still, if a child is being attacked by a dog and no one else is around, what does one do?  Great powers have moral responsibilities and their populations individually have the moral responsibility to recognize and support this.