re: The Gaza land invasion (Day 46) ...

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Having a huge, technological navy is one thing -- spending trillions of dollars to clean up other countries with no return is another. We rebuilt Iraq and Afghanistan, installed people we wanted, and they automatically reverted to the way they were when we started to pack up and ship out.

The fact is: Other countries need to stand up and quell the chaos, because when we do it nothing gets accomplished.

Yes to the Navy, no to country forming.

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Nation building doesn't happen in ten years. It happens in 50. People forget that South Korea (and Japan) was economically indistinguishable from North Korea in 1960. It wasn't until decades after American occupation had started that they began to really get their shite together. The same was true for Germany, just on a quicker scale. We destroyed Iraq with the embargo and then came in and invaded the place and tore down all of their national systems, at least the ones that remained. The country was in total shambles; I think the Embargo really did the majority of the damage, not the war. Iraq would have been a shithole compared to the DCR in 2002. We treated Iraq like it was gulf war 1 and they were Kuwait; ready to get back on their feet as soon as we took Saddam out of power. In reality we under-estimated the squalor we put them in. They are still going to be recovering from it 30 years from now. They may never recover.

Country forming has created some really strong allies for us, it just takes several generations of willpower to do it and we don't have it in us as a people anymore.

Democracy was a mistake to introduce and we paid for it, but leaving at all was a second, bigger mistake.

On the Navy subject: In order to maintain a worldwide presence, secure naval bases are required. For secure naval bases overseas, secure, friendly nations are needed. For that, well, you see where I'm going with this.