North American politicians really need to get with the program; to invest in and facilitate the mining of critical metals in North America; to scour the globe for mines that can provide the feedstock for the industries of the future, and invest
How China is locking up critical resources in the US's own backyard
In the 1800s the United States under President James Monroe invoked the Monroe Doctrine, which stated that any effort by European nations to control any independent state in North or South America would be viewed as "an unfriendly disposition towards the United States."
The intent of the Monroe Doctrine was to free the newly independent colonies of Latin America from mostly Spain and Portugal, so that the States could exert its influence undisturbed.
"The Monroe Doctrine, first articulated in 1823 as a means of blocking external interference in the Western Hemisphere, was the central pillar of US policy toward Latin America until Barack Obama's secretary of State, John Kerry, told a roomful of Latin American diplomats in 2013 that "the era of the Monroe Doctrine is over." The statement was part of an effort to rehabilitate the US image in a region long accustomed to seeing the United States as seeking to control it through persuasion when possible, and force when necessary. In a policy paper published last December, Craig Deare, a dean at the US National Defense University and now Mr. Trump's top Latin America advisor on the National Security Council staff,denounced Kerry's statement"as a clear invitation to those extra-regional actors looking for opportunities to increase their influence. He specifically mentioned China." Is Trump resurrecting the Monroe Doctrine? Max Paul Friedman