The Strategy of Military Presence: The Shield and the Spear?

"The reality is that our military presence on foreign soil is as offensive to the people that live there as armed Chinese troops would be if they were stationed in Texas. We would not stand for it here, but we have had a globe-straddling empire and a very intrusive foreign policy for decades that incites a lot of hatred and resentment toward us." ~ Ron Paul

"The idea of a permanent U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, as opposed to an economic presence, is going to create a new wave of hostility toward the United States." ~ Ahmed Rashid

In order to control a region, one needs first of all to secure it.

Trump invokes national security in a justification of his ambitions over Greenland, Panama Canal, Canada, and the Gaza Strip. He warns about foreign threats in Chinese and Russian vessels lurking too close and just waiting for signs of weakness.

Whether those threats are real or blown out of proportion is irrelevant because fear is a tool, and he uses it well, he thrives on it. Indeed, leaders in most organizations, communities, and even nations use the ingredient of fear to their benefit.

Where rational thinking is thrown off, out of fear, man goes back into survival mode and becomes ready to accept more extreme measures around them, such as corruption, and even willingly give up precious freedom for false security.

Fabrication of threats enables one to suppress opposition, create a common enemy, justify drastic policy, and also distract from his own failures. It also fosters dependence, whereby individuals may turn to authoritarian figures for protection in uncertain times.

Canada, he says, depends upon America's military. If they do not pay, they are ungrateful.

The presence of terrorism, pandemics, or economic stability is used these days to create a pretext for surveillance, censorship, and other military actions. In microcosms, companies, institutional bosses, and many leaders of nation states use fear in order to mute critics, or at least manifest loyalty, even to divert issues of accountability.

While fear-oriented leadership may give some results within a short term, it generates more instability and resentment, developing into resistance eventually as people identify and reject their manipulation.

This is how the strong keep the weak in their place - through threats over what will happen to them once their protector destroys the economy.