China doesn't necessarily need us, they need to replace us. If they can dominate Asia in the same way that we dominate Europe, then they have a growing population, with growing buying power, to sell their goods.
The U.S. provided defense to Europe and basically made them a protectorate of the U.S. The smaller militaries on the continent have helped to produce a little pan-Europeanism. However, it has also made those countries far too dependent on the U.S. for their defense. Protectorates are bad allies IMO. They have a way of pulling you into conflicts you do not necessarily need to engage in and they do not provide the same type of support that a true ally would.
Like or dislike Trump, he has been somewhat correct in the idea that Europe (particularly the Germans) have been freeloading for the better part of the past 20 to 30 years. They need to step up more because the U.S. cannot be expected to maintain the world order that they very much benefit from in the face of both Russian and Chinese aggression on its own.
One last thing, we need to get back to the idea of American exceptionalism. All this garbage getting pumped out about how bad a country this is by our own academia and media is detrimental to the type of posture a nation needs to have if they are going to have to continue to carry this burden. Everybody likes to dog the U.S. until stuff like this happens and then it becomes "well what is the U.S. going to do...." Well, if we are nothing more than another imperial power who was founded on racism and all that is evil in the world, we are going to do jack shit. You don't willingly go to help people if they believe you are a bad guy and you believe the same. Milley needs to shut the **** up about "white rage". The enemy does not view us as white, black, or Asian, they view us all as Americans. So we need to start ****ing acting like it instead of all this stupid ass political and racial division all the time.
The United States is the greatest country on earth. How do I know? Because every time a Putin or Xi or some other tinpot dictator gets out of line, the U.S. is always the first country on the lips of the truly oppressed and true victims begging for help.
(Stepping off soapbox---and that was not all directed at you Ranger, I just got on a roll)
