Free Navigation of the seas has ALWAYS been a US interest. Just ask Thomas Jefferson.
Thomas Jefferson would have been impeached and removed from office if he used U.S. military forces to protect the commercial shipping interests of other nations.
It takes a special kind of retardation to really believe the U.S. taxpayer should be paying the cost of protecting cargo ships owned by foreign companies that go out of their way to register these ships outside the U.S. to avoid paying taxes here and meeting U.S. shipping regulations.
“Free Navigation of the seas has ALWAYS been a US interest. Just ask Thomas Jefferson.”
and James Madison BEFORE Thomas Jefferson as well ...
The UK was the world’s only superpower at towards the middle of the 19th century because its navy vanquished pretty much all the other naval powers, and since then has lost its world empire and its navy can now barely float an air craft carrier, while the soviet union can’t float even a single carrier ...
the U.S. entered the world stage because of it’s growing naval power starting under Madison and Jefferson, who both refused to kowtow to the Muslim Barbary pirates, and has remained a world naval power ever since, growing into the world’s most powerful navy ...
world commerce is still conducted on the oceans, and regardless of what flag of convenience a ship hoists and where it is going to or coming from, if such shipping affects the U.S., then the U.S. has an interest in seeing that such shipping proceeds unmolested ... period ...