chapotraphouse

pull back our expeditionary units and close our bases around the world."

Um....my brain just had a very lib thought (though in lib fashion, I still think it applies). This actually reminds me of strategies in war games where you keep building troop manufacturing buildings and fortresses next to places you plan to invade next, or plan hostilities towards.

You could be building them as a way to protect allies, but if your foreign policy is pretty hostile to nations in the area (militarily, economically and/or politically), and you have a history of extremely violent aggression, if I was on the other side, I would absolutely expect the worst. You can either be Iraq and appeasement policy yourself into a violent invasion and the murder of a million of your people, or you can be North Korea and threaten to YOLO the other side and split the millions of deaths among yourselves. One got invaded, and the other one hasn't. China pulls its punches a lot, but I'm glad they don't back down.