 Free writing, one of the things that's going on in the world is of course the United States is now Has its fleet we get together with the British and some other some other navies out in the Red Sea and there's a bunch of stories about how The the basically the the Chinese are free writing on on the On the West that is the United States is protecting the sea lanes and who benefits from that well China benefits from them and Well, that is true Partially true. It is also interesting and it brought a mind a few a few thoughts one is The fact that the fact that The one Country's ships that are not being attacked on the Red Sea are Chinese ships Chinese ships are getting a Free ride through the Red Sea and and this suggests The China has put some pressure on Iran Iran has told its Proxies in among the Houthis not to attack Chinese ships So if you want to cross the Red Sea Chinese ownership Chinese flag Chinese crew would really really really help So Chinese one of the reasons the Chinese have not deployed their Navy One of the reasons they're letting America's do all the heavy lifting here It's not only because it's cheaper and easier to do that The Chinese do have a couple of ships from the Navy in the aid and cease and are far from this but to some extent at least because Some of the ships that are Chinese ships are getting freeze passage Of course It is also true that the Chinese are not getting vote the Chinese do benefit enormously from all these other ships carrying Chinese goods to Europe because they're the sellers but of course the idea that They are free writing and Europe is not is Bizarre of course Europe is free writing as well because Europe is benefiting from American protection and getting the cheap goods from China without Deploying its forces in order to protect That free flow of goods again with the exception of the UK so But This really evades a much bigger issue and that is the fact that the entire world since World War two Has basically been free writing of the United States in a sense and and of course the United States benefits from this enormously, but other countries European countries China China the rest really the rest of the world does not really Share in the costs and that is that since World War two the United States has basically been the protector of trade in the open seas China is a huge beneficiary of this and So has a Europe and again the rest of the world everybody who trades with anybody and I you know 80% of the goods Travel in that are traded globally travel by sea In the United States Navy is the one to protect that the United States Navy is funded by you and me And as a consequence it is all funding that keeps it all going and of course the free writing problem is much larger than that because NATO has been You know the United States has basically been protecting Europe from the Soviet Union and now from Russia without the Europeans really paying Into that in any kind of reasonable way Really, the Europeans are big enough rich enough strong enough They should be able to pay for their own defense. Why do they need the United States at all other than the convenience of Being able to free write off of it. I mean the deal should be cut a big deal should be cut Whereas the United States will sustain a Navy that protects the shipping lanes around the world and at the same time it should You know in a sense leave NATO and let NATO let NATO become a European defense agency that basically protects Europe so the US will take the shipping will take the sea lanes and Europe will take Europe and Defend it from Russia Islamism and whoever else poses a threat to the countries within Europe That's kind of a global deal that should be made But China is not to be made deals with So the United States still will have the burden of protecting the sea lanes in Asia Not just in the rest of the world. It would be good to find other seafaring nations certainly Japan South Korea That have a strong interest in keeping the sea lanes open and have good navies Japan has an excellent Navy and Promote their participation in this mission to keep trade to keep ships To keep trade flowing through the shipping lanes of the world