Trump’s American Expansion and my Beach Ball Globe
Two months ago President Trump announced his ambitions to enlarge the United States.
Specifically;
In Latin America, Trump wants to retake the Panama canal, rename the Gulf of Mexico and bring Mexico to heal. This superficially evokes the Monroe Doctrine but more cogently involves controlling South America with its economic, political and migration problems.
Parenthetically a lack of rain in Central America may make the Panama Canal become unusable for modern navigation. In recent years hundreds of ships wait daily to cross between the Pacific and the Atlantic side even as they are unable to carry a full load. Maybe US technology and money might help.
The Chinese are buying up portions of South America and gaining economic sway in that area. Trump frets.
The coast of the United States roughly equals that of Mexico on the Gulf. I suppose Trump’s meaningless change in wordage is harmless.
To the north, the Greenland and Canada annexation schemes mention acquisition of natural resources like oil, minerals, lumber and fishing. Greenland is on the shortest route between Europe and the USA. The island can be used to spy on the Russian Northern Fleet as it enters the Atlantic.
All of these formulations are boilerplate and usually accompanied by maps which are crimped to support the author’s position. I found a number of contradictions among them and wanted to see the big picture. Accordingly, I invested seven bucks and bought two beach ball globes, inflated one, studied it and found a vaster vision that might or might not color the president’s eruptions. (The second one goes to some grandkids.)
1) What’s obvious is that South America is by and large to the east of North America. I had not appreciated how wide the Pacific Ocean is. It requires a ship to travel almost halfway around the World to get to the Panama Canal from Japan or from China, in part because the two American continents slope away from Asia as they go further south.
2)The USA control over commerce to and among Central and South American countries at Panama allows China to invest money but always under the eye and control of the USA.
3) If central America continues its drought, the Panama canal will become unusable no matter what planned improvements are accomplished. Other routes between the Pacific and Atlantic will become necessary. And that’s an overlooked geopolitical twist to Trump’s northern yen.
4) There is a theory that the globe is warming and melting arctic ice
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