Soft power (soft rangs of soft power) cost is "but our allies" divided by "many lives will be lost" multiplied by "America will fall behind".
That means 50 million gibouts for Iraqi Sesame Street equals 69.420lb of soft rangs of powaaaaaaa!
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Stop listening to reddit. I enjoy they have herded themselves in to a ghetto for easy disposal.
The thing that Trump is screwing up is diplomatic soft power. Countries have an expectation of generally r-slurred nonsense happening every now and again in US foreign policy but largely it's been consistent and trustworthy for many decades. The thing with Canada & Mexico is the biggest deal so far. US had a treaty with them, that was signed by Trump 5 years ago, that he totally ignored. A political system that allows this to occur is not one other countries will consider a trustworthy partner.
Treaties are how we advance our views around the world. The US has used the carrot of trade treaties for decades to advance a liberal (actual definition not burger definition) agenda around the world. This helps countries develop and become less terrible places to live, good for the people who live there and good for us as they develop to consume more of our products & services.
USAid stuff no objections to them getting rid of the chaff but they are fricking with some pretty important humanitarian projects too. Everyone calls this soft power but it's really not (Africa will always be poor), it's about being decent. US and EU have had an arrangement where we handle immediate needs and they handle longer term infrastructure development. USAid is heavily biased towards food security and medical care as a result. I have no problem with my tax dollars going to these projects.
The Panama thing might turn in to the most significant issue depending on how countries consider it. The threatened to violate a decades old treaty with military force. Countries entering in to treaties with us which have significant strategic interest will be highly dubious without political changes so a POTUS can't unilaterally do that, we will get much less favourable terms and durations until that occurs. EG Denmark will absolutely be looking to reduce Greenland access to a specific horizon requiring a new treaty rather than the current perpetual treaty.
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I keep hearing about how our "soft power" is so important and yet it's patently obvious that no one in the world respects us. African griftmaxxers let us feed and treat their entire populations, then do the bidding of the Chinese and invite them to build strategic infrastructure. Iraq was handed their country, and cozied up to Iran. The Pakistanis whined about how they needed American tanks and jets to hold of India, all while their ISI funded the Taliban and harbored Bin Laden.
It's been to many years of endless carrots and now it's time for the sticks to come out. See how much you like slobbering Chinese knob when we can collapse your economy in two weeks
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We're on like the fifth decade of giving trade concessions to china in the hope that they'll finally open up their markets and respect intellectual property
Lol maybe a few more years of being reasonable will work
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Hmm lemme see we got, "America left behind" and "many will die" yep that is the correct recipe for soft power! This guy knows his fricking SOFT
POWER
SOFT
POWER
SOFT
POWAAAAAAAAA
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All those countries can suck our peepee. Canada is killing r-slurs and bongland is letting Muslims go on r*pe sprees. They are not our friends and are lucky we don't nuke them. Trans lives matter
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