North American geopolitical reboot.

[BrainEater]

Heh.

This forum is a very accurate portrayal of the current North American geopolitical situation.
I see a lot of chaos and ' why are we doing this? ' type stuff.
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Canada ( my country) and the United States ((we are brothers)) needs to recoil from international entanglements . I think we should both "pull out" of everywhere......it's not worth it !

Let's worry about our own countries . We have buckets of problems already.
Just my thoughts.

 

[MongGrel]

Way too many corporate interests globally for the US to become isolationist.

It's not going to happen.

Even Trump saying he would do that he would attempt to do that, he relies on many off shore companies/investments on his end.

 

[BrainEater]

I understand the corporate interest thing.North America can do business abroad without being in everybody's face.
As far as I see it there should be no N.A. troops anywhere . we should back off.
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And please don't degenerate this into a presidential runoff thread.I don't care about the face of US politics.Or Canadian politics.The face does not dictate policy.

 

[nickqt]

The military industrial complex has jobs strategically located in every single congressional district in the country.

The US is stuck playing Empire for awhile yet. Perhaps someday we can stop burning over $1T a year on BS, but I doubt it will be anytime in the next 30 years.

 

[BrainEater]

Dammit , that's totally right.I cannot argue that, and I hate it.

:/

 

[yllus]

Keep in mind that the West, and the US in particular, don't traipse around the world with their military forces for no good reason. The bases, the campaigns and the roving carrier groups are all out there to keep the status quo in place so international trade in oil, computer chips, wheat and everything else keeps going. It's not by accident that the people spending the most money on the military that keeps the status quo are also the people who benefit the most from the status quo. It's predominantly American and Western products that make money, and America and the West that need things like oil to maintain their lifestyle.

In other words, we're entangled because it's worth the negatives. The positives outweigh them 100 to 1.

 

[Puffnstuff]

As a taxpayer I wish that other countries would assist us in funding our military empire so we can redirect more of its budget to social programs to help our population.

 

[Perknose]

Keep in mind that the West, and the US in particular, don't traipse around the world with their military forces for no good reason. The bases, the campaigns and the roving carrier groups are all out there to keep the status quo in place so international trade in oil, computer chips, wheat and everything else keeps going. It's not by accident that the people spending the most money on the military that keeps the status quo are also the people who benefit the most from the status quo. It's predominantly American and Western products that make money, and America and the West that need things like oil to maintain their lifestyle.

In other words, we're entangled because it's worth the negatives. The positives outweigh them 100 to 1.

:beer: <---- This will have to do until we get the thumbusp icon back!

Anyone who thinks we deploy our massive military around the world in anything but our own perceived self-interest doesn't have the first clue. Now, whether that has been entirely wise is another matter altogether.

 

[rudder]

The Russians aren't going to roll into Western Europe in an attempt to conquer the continent. The U.S. Should maintain a base or two for logistical purposes because of the Middle East is on fire. And screw NATO unless other countries pay their fair share.

Sure you can use Crimea as an example to me being wrong but Crimea has a large Russia population to begin with and the Obama administration was screwing with Ukraine's internal politics giving Putin all the opportunity he needed.

I also think South Korea is able to afford their own defense. NK huffs and puffs every once in a while only because all the people are starving and giving NK aid settles them down for a while.

The U.S. Government has also been proven to be China's bitch and will let China do what they want. No need to maintain anything other than a naval repair station in Japan.

 

[BrainEater]

:beer: <---- This will have to do until we get the thumbusp icon back!

Anyone who thinks we deploy our massive military around the world in anything but our own perceived self-interest doesn't have the first clue. Now, whether that has been entirely wise is another matter altogether.

Again , I agree fully .It's exactly that.
"we deploy our militaries for our own perceived self-interest."

That's greed and "empire building".
I don't see any reason North America needs boots on the ground anywhere.I'm sorry , I think we can be nearly self sufficient.
...And I do understand the requirement to sometimes break out the boomstick, to smash some ahole , but I think that's a very fine line that gets crossed far too frequently.
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rudder brings up a good point too :
We are kind of "China's bitch" . A vast portion of our manufacturing comes from there.They own a lot of property in Canada and the U.S. too .Same thing with Europe and Russia , everybody owns stuff all over.
Seems to me actual warfare is being phased out , just because we are 'global' now.

I have a plan.

Let's get all U.S. and Canadian troops home immediately.From everywhere.After they've had a few weeks to hug their families , We can have them help repair things like bridges and roads and critical infrastructure.The core of our countries.

We will spend half , and benefit 100%

 

[sdifox]

Without these forays, how will the US Arms manufacturers survive? These are the bases for stronarming "allies" into buying US military hardware at inflated prices.

even fucking Canada is selling armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia.

 

[Victorian Gray]

Without these forays, how will the US Arms manufacturers survive? These are the bases for stronarming "allies" into buying US military hardware at inflated prices.

even fucking Canada is selling armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia.

Unfortunately we're apparently number 2 after the US for arms sales to the Middle East (and number six for world arms sales).