[Old_Mil]

Nice attempt at trying to tie two entirely unrelated issues together. Turning over the canal to Panama after we spent the blood and sweat to built it was foolish. Allowing the Chinese to get involved, even moreso.

Selective colonialism isn't necessarily a bad thing, even if you support immigration controls.

[Paul Ross]

Turning over the canal to Panama after we spent the blood and sweat to built it was foolish. Allowing the Chinese to get involved, even more so.

Bump. Correct.

[WoofDog123]

As allen08gop notes, the chinese company has long term leases on the two ports here. Hopefully the FR urban legend of china running/managing/owning/controlling the canal is sufficiently debunked now.

The real loss with the completion of the treaty in 1999 for the US was Howard AFB/Ft Kobbe and Fort Sherman (JOTB). I know the US uses an air base in Manta, ecuador now but the new govt. there has said they will ask the US to leave. Howard and Sherman are still *mostly* empty as far as I know, interesting in and of itself. Given ARI's zeal to sell everything else they could, sometimes twice, it is certainly odd that those facilities, particularly on howard, were not sold/leased as there were apparently interested bidders on the airfield.

As far as defending the canal, ownership isn't nearly as good as having an active, fully staffed military base a mile away with an airfield.