Why was the United States so reluctant to enter World War I?

The United
States did not feel immediately
threatened in 1914 when the war began.  The government did
perceive some
threats, but it was mainly from the anarchist and labor movements.  The
United
States hoped to trade with both the Entente and the Central Powers,
though it soon switched to
mainly trading with the Entente Powers because the
Central Powers did not have the navy to get
past the British blockade.  The
United States thought that it could count on being surrounded by
two oceans
to protect itself from a European struggle.  The progressive activists in the
country
feared that war would get in the way of their domestic
agenda.  

Even when
war came to the United States in the
form of submarine attacks on American citizens and goods,
the United States
refused to get into the war.  Woodrow Wilson claimed that the United States

was "too proud to fight."  There was a concern that the United States military was
not
prepared to fight the huge armies of the Central Powers, as the army's
last meaningful
experience was in the Spanish-American War.  The people of
the United States saw the war as a
squabble among European powers over
territory that did not concern the United States.  The
United States only
went to war after the discovery of the Zimmerman telegram, which promised

Mexico the American West, and the continuation of German unrestricted submarine warfare,
which
sank many American ships.  Even when the United States joined the war,
it did not join as an
ally of Britain and France. Instead, the United States
was described as an
"associated" power.  This was done so the United States
could still claim the moral
high ground when the conflict
ended.