You are, of course, right as far as transportation issues go. I was viewing it from a standpoint of national and military strategic interest.
I'll lead you through how we go about making these assessments and estimates. The process begins with identifying core national values from which one can derive national interests. Based on the identified interests, we can develop statements of national objectives that are the ends of our grand strategy. Identifying the interests we wish to protect is an essential ingredient of a strategic appraisal. That appraisal then continues with the identification of threats and challenges to those interests. We want to know, as best we can, who or what can threaten our interests in what ways. The threats and challenges may derive rrom specific actors in the international system (states or non-state actors), or they may be more generally based in developments and trends occurring within the system (such as increasing economic globalization or weapons proliferation). Once the threats and challenges to U.S. interests have been identified, we have to examine current policy to see if we are adequately addressing the protection and promotion of our interests. Realigning our strategy with the protection and promotion of our interests, given the threats and challenges to them in the contemporary security environment, is the essence of the search for a new grand strategy. Of course, we must also identify and articulate the other component parts of that strategy (such as a military strategy in support of the national security strategy), and conduct a risk assessment. The latter is important because no country, including the United States, has unlimited resources (means) with which to pursue its objectives (ends). This implies that we must make tradeoffs in what we protect and promote and how. Such tradeoffs entail risk, and we must make conscious decisions about how much risk in what areas we are willing to take.
There was a time when we made all Navy ships 108 feet wide so they could pass through the 110 foot Gatun locks. That time has passed with our larger warships and the evolution of commercial shipping into mammoth container ships and supertankers. We have, however, lost the ability to control the passage of beligerent military vessels through the canals. I also feel that if the current process of Chinazation continues in Panama, the Chinese might feel it would be a convenient place to park a few Long March Missiles, just as the Soviets did with their ICBMs in Cuba.
GV
