And yes, that *should* be a scary image :p

No, foreign aid is stupid. Our government shouldn't be giving away our resources. Private individuals and interest groups sure. But not our government imo.

>finger guns
im fiscally conservative and socially liberal youve never debated someone like me

Billions for defense but not one cent for goodwill, eh?

Someone will give the aid

Might as well be us

No matter where you go, money equals power

Hey *highfives @Blackhawk342 *

You and me both

eyyyyy

It doesn't look good on us if we suddenly drop the ball

Plus the chinese have a bad habit of making their aid come in the form of infastructure projects

I know. They make countries dependent on them for maintenance and more toys.

It's like geopolitical drugs.

Good will should not be forced on our citizens to foreign ones @DrYuriMom

And that is even if the project is ever completed

Where they bring in chinese contractors to do the work
and the chinese government gives the nation a loan so they can pay for the projects

The Chinese learned well how to use drugs for geopolitical means from the Brits

This is important because the chinese economy is all based around construction

People in china dont have retirement accounts, they have 4-8 unfurnished unfinished apartments

I can see the economy based on business transactions but not with construction

Hiniku, that's a very purist notion. I'd rather my son's blood not be spent fighting where some realpolitik could have prevented it.

Why can't it come from the pockets of nonprofits built to help other nations. Why does it have to be our government?

Because those countries feel no loyalty towards the non profits

It's great if that happens, but if it is the responsibility of our government to protect us then they should use the best means available to protect us

We pay them and they like us in return

because we have to make sure the other countries know we are in charge

I consider keeping the Americas in line by any means necessary to be a defense expense.

For the cost of a few F35's, we keep China from having bases near our shores.

What a deal

Until the Chinese start building man-made islands lol

"I make love to Henry Kissinger when it comes to geopolitical realism"
Because violent interventionism and putting extremists in power has worked out super swell

That's what the Navy is for 😃

They do well at blowing shit up in the water

*GO NAVY*

Kissinger fucked up a lot imo

Yes, he did. But damn he had balls.

Kissinger is like a Donald Trump who actually knows how geopolitics works

didn't China recently make a some sort of technology for their naval ships which prevent them from being detected by the US navy?

China is still years behind on stealth

Stealth ships have been around since the early 2000s and they arent practical as of yet