- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
U.S. officials familiar with the planning said options for “reclaiming” the vital waterway include close cooperation with Panama’s military and, absent that, possible war.
U.S. officials familiar with the planning said options for “reclaiming” the vital waterway include close cooperation with Panama’s military and, absent that, possible war.
Wow. Really? Like really really?
We’re now gonna massacre a bunch of Panamanians for a shipping canal? Fuck.
Well, now that they clearly have great OPSEC, I hope Panama sabotages the hell out of it.
I think Panama did say they’d destroy the canal before they’d allow it to be taken. I took a cursory look for that tidbit, but the news feeds about the canal are blown up at the moment.
If I had to wager a guess, destroying the canal wouldn’t stop a takeover. Rebuilding it would be a fraction of the price of the war.
And don’t try telling me that the cost of the war will be much higher than just the military occupation because of shipping costs going up from the canal being shut down, the cost of actually maintaining the place, riots, etc because the idiots who want this wouldn’t listen for long enough to think about that anyway.
The cost of rebuilding would be more than just the cost for materials and labor. They’d also have to deal with a generation of vengeful Panamanian guerillas killing the construction workers, sabotaging equipment, and sinking ships.
Yeh it’d be like the situation with the Houthis but worse because the cannal has choke points just one ship wide, and any ship destroyed would block the whole thing for months or even years.
And the cost of the war would be a fraction of the money lost during the length of rebuilding. Remember that ship that blocked the Suez? Less than a week and cost nearly $10 billion. It would likely take years, plural, to get Panama functional again.
No clue what either would cost, but that’s part of why I threw my so disclaimer in