> Why haven't they chosen to invest in these areas? One possible reason would be the ongoing violence; perhaps they had a better idea of the schedule than the Chinese had.
I think from an investment standpoint it's probably not worth it. American/European/Western firms are occupying higher margin/revenue deals in safer countries. They have limited capacity so they have to choose investments. Likely ROI for investing in African countries is quite low. China on the other hand due to its self-imposed handicap is likely looking to invest in African countries to mine resources to bring back to China to make iPhones for everyone else. They just occupy a lower margin space. Otherwise, to your point, Americans could be doing what the Chinese are doing.
But also, there are so many things at play here I doubt any of us have much insight except speculation. Which is fun. But let's be clear about that.
> Unlike the AK47 you cite, American military weapons are mostly not fit for the purpose of "winning" wars: we haven't "won" a war since 1945.
People like to repeat this, but if you're talking about militarily (since you're talking about equipment) we've actually won quite a few wars. I'm sympathetic to your point that we haven't won any wars (Korea actually may be one we've "won", how do we classify Yugoslavia and Desert Storm?) but you have to be clear about it. If you want to criticize military equipment, I don't think you're correct and the numbers bear that out. If you want to say overall because we lose political will, then yea I think there are a number of wars that we've "lost".
I think from an investment standpoint it's probably not worth it. American/European/Western firms are occupying higher margin/revenue deals in safer countries. They have limited capacity so they have to choose investments. Likely ROI for investing in African countries is quite low. China on the other hand due to its self-imposed handicap is likely looking to invest in African countries to mine resources to bring back to China to make iPhones for everyone else. They just occupy a lower margin space. Otherwise, to your point, Americans could be doing what the Chinese are doing.
But also, there are so many things at play here I doubt any of us have much insight except speculation. Which is fun. But let's be clear about that.
> Unlike the AK47 you cite, American military weapons are mostly not fit for the purpose of "winning" wars: we haven't "won" a war since 1945.
People like to repeat this, but if you're talking about militarily (since you're talking about equipment) we've actually won quite a few wars. I'm sympathetic to your point that we haven't won any wars (Korea actually may be one we've "won", how do we classify Yugoslavia and Desert Storm?) but you have to be clear about it. If you want to criticize military equipment, I don't think you're correct and the numbers bear that out. If you want to say overall because we lose political will, then yea I think there are a number of wars that we've "lost".