The common argument for current foreign policy strategy is that we are safe because we ensure our enemies are surrounded by our (well armed and funded) friends. That way those enemies can never get to us because they've got too much going on right there where they are. Actually, that doesn't seem like such a bad plan, except for the fact that it costs WAY more money than even the US can maintain, and perhaps more importantly, it robs our ALLIES of that which we used to hold most dear here at home -namely national sovereignty. 

Since the beginning, before nations or cities or any of it, people gathered together and protected "borders". The primary REASON for banding together in the first place was to do this. A nation's ability to protect and maintain it's borders and keep it's territory safe from invasion is THE defining quality of a country, and without that quality it is NOT a sovereign state, no matter what we or anyone else choose to label it as. 

If the US installs military bases, troops, weapons and equipment, etc. and then provides funding for everything in that country from defense to social engineering programs, then that ally is not an ally; it isn't even a sovereign country anymore. This is defacto colonialism pure and simple. 

The fact that most people can't or won't understand is that the reason most of our "allies" REQUIRE the presence of a caretaker nanny "ally" like the US is because they have antiquated, perverse and nonsensical ECONOMIC systems that cannot support the primary mandates that are requisite for sovereign nations. Instead of doing what we can to bring our "allies" up to speed with regard to economics, we just tell them to go ahead and play their stupid little games and we'll just take care of it. It's much like spoiling a child rotten. Why should they change anything?

"Change is hard! We may not like it! Even if we do it's HARD! Just give us more money!"

We give Africa money because Africa is "poor". So why do only the rich people in Africa ever get it? Because that's the way it is that's why. The only way they are ever going to be self-sufficient to any degree is if they change the various bureaucratic systems and economic models on their social landscape. If they don't do that then there isn't enough paper in the world to print sufficient dollars to fix them. And it's not just the countries in Africa -that's just an example -nearly all of our foreign "allies" fall into this category of "child nation" status. 

If countries want to be rich like us we should help them, but we only know how WE became a rich country, so if they will not adopt OUR model of economics then that should be the end of our help to make them a rich country. If they will adopt it then we should by all means provide every possible assistance, be it temporary military assistance, economic aid or whatever. If they are rich they will be powerful. If they are powerful they won't need our military bases and endless economic charity. If they will not adopt our model we should wish them luck and hope that they find another way before they are ended by someone that does. We can't very well go all over the world and let people do whatever they want regardless of whether or not what they're doing is actually a functioning independent government, or at least on track to being one. 

We ARE the Japanese military. How can they possibly consider themselves a sovereign nation? We need to start weening our "allies" off of this unnatural and unsupportable "assistance". It's like a mother breast feeding her 40 year old child! This should have stopped long ago.

We should NOT just abandon our friends around the world, but we SHOULD make it clear that WE are the ones that figured out how to be economically successful, so THEY are the ones that will have to do what WE say to get to where we are now and if they don't then we should just wish them luck and move on to someone else that will actually listen to someone that's DONE it. This is not rocket science. Nothing succeeds like success and nothing oppresses like imperial colonialism. Hopefully now that it's becoming more clear that even the US economy can't afford to create enough wealth for the entire planet to feed off of more people will start to see reason. I hope so.