Jimmy Carter the 39th President of the United States explained the country's biggest mistake. He didn’t hate his country.he wanted what was best for it.

While China has spent decades laying tracks for the future, we’ve been digging graves in the past. They’ve built cities, schools, trains that move faster than thought. We’ve built military bases, debt, and an empire of rust.

China chose infrastructure. We chose interference. They built railways across continents. We bombed bridges across borders. They invested in AI, medicine, and education. We invested in overthrowing oil-rich governments, branding it freedom.

We spent $300 billion trying to bend the world to our will. They spent it making their own nation unshakable.

We don’t have high-speed trains. We don’t have roads that last. We don’t have universal healthcare, or education systems that top the charts. But we do have the most advanced weapons on Earth, pointed at every direction but inward.

If we’d used even a fraction of that money on ourselves, our cities would hum like circuits. Our schools would shine. Our hospitals would heal. Our people might feel something we haven’t felt in a long time—progress.

Jon Sanders