“BUT BUT BUT - does that all mean we just let China do what it wants? What they are doing in the South China Sea with the Spratleys and other islands. To just move in and build bases illegally and basically say to the world "well what are you gunna do about it?" - and they get away with it.”
The Chinese have no less a claim to the Spratleys which are 500 miles away from China than the English do over the Falklands which are 8000 miles from England or the Americans over Guam which are 5000 miles from America.
America officially has over 800 bases worldwide in over 80 countries and as was recently discovered by accident it has troops conducting military operations in 20 countries in Africa alone along with the more high profile wars being fought in the Middle East and soon to be South America.
The US has been involved in military operations in over 50 countries since WW2 and since the country was founded in 1776 has been at war every single year except 7.
Can we say China comes even close to this with its SEVERAL foreign military bases.
“That engagement has enormous monetary benefits, but it still comes at a cost”
It comes at a cost being “engaged” with the US too by being strong armed into spending horrendous amounts of money on US weapons (one of the highest/GDP of the developed world) and then being conned into supporting war crimes while fighting US resource wars on the other side of the planet in countries that pose zero threat to Australia.