Hey I too know a lib I can't get through to; this guy however doesn't know nearly enough about history to try and sound informed; he instead spouts whatever comes to mind, for example: when I told him about what had been going on in Donbas until the war, and that Ukraine wanted the land but not the people, he argued for ethnic cleansing in the form of forcing all the Russians there to leave, and it was enough that the Ukrainian government wanted them gone for him to say that. When I brought up that the US is causing major issues with Taiwan, his response was "Do you believe that China does bad things?", and then wanted to start talking about the Uyghurs even though.....it has literally no relation to the situation with Taiwan. He pretends that countries not being democracies is the reason he supports the US intervening or invading many nations, and when I point out that Ukraine has shut down many left wing parties, he then pivots and says Putin does it too with a face as though he's said something really clever.

I've spent hours trying to educate him about what's going on in many countries the US intervenes in but the truth is this guy just inherently supports US empire.

Your friend may be different, but I suspect he's using what little historical info he has to try and lend legitimacy to his claims but the truth is he already knows who he supports (just not why).