So this is what Cardi B was talking about.

Thank you for reminding me these existed. Unlocked some memories that have been sitting there for decades unremembered.

Quite a lot. The US did the same thing in Iraq and Afghanistan too. Who cares about who the enemy is or how many people die if they military industrial complex is making bank?

A country doesn’t need to be a superpower to project some power, but very few rise to the level of global hegemony. I think China is probably in the superpower tier today. The belt and road initiative is classic economic hegemony shit.

China’s GDP was lower than Canada’s. Economic strength is not the only factor of a superpower, but it’s significant. It’s hard to project power effectively without sufficient wealth to fund those efforts.