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I don't like to discuss politics on this site, but sometimes I can't help myself.
America shares a border with two countries, Canada and Mexico. Although a lot of drugs come from Mexico, along with some undocumented people, neither country would be considered an enemy or a threat to the US.
China, on the other hand, shares a border with 12 countries, including their nuclear armed mad dog ally North Korea, nuclear armed basket case Pakistan, nuclear armed exploding population India, totally in turmoil Kyrgyzstan, and the mother of all quagmires Afghanistan.
America has the friendly neighbors, but we spend untold billions and tens of thousands of lives to try to secure countries thousands of miles away while China, who borders two of them, manages to get along well enough with them, even though ethnic Islamic Uighurs last year rioted and raised enough hell that 200 people died and the army had to crack down on them. Does China freak out and invade bordering Muslim countries? No, but they own the copper rights in Afghanistan.
They manage to keep the peace with all these wacky neighbors by keeping a strong army at home. One that spends most of its time helping victims of natural disasters.
Is it a good trade off for us to have sacrificed thousands of service members' lives and health, a trillion in treasure, and tens of thousands of lives of the people whose countries we invaded? Are we safer because of it? Is the world a better place? Wouldn't we be better off securing our country at home, weaning ourselves off of oil, and healing our wounded homeland instead of tilting at Afghan windmills?
We have borrowed a butt load of money from China to pay for these foreign adventures. They love holding the note on that debt and I'm sure they appreciate the copper rights.
