@griffith @Nudhul @lanodan @hj @gentoobro @Hoss @mangeurdenuage

> If the US fleet didn't exist, others would fund their own because of the importance of trade.

Part of the reason that we replaced the Articles of Confederacy with the current Constitution was that they weren't doing this. Barbary Coast pirates, funded by the Ottoman Empire, were raiding ships and not just robbing but kidnapping everyone aboard, castrating the men to sell as eunuch slaves and then selling the women and children as sex slaves for these degenerate harems. Jefferson couldn't get Europe to help out and couldn't get enough funding from the states. The entire reason we have a navy is because nobody else spends their time or money on stopping people from getting murdered/robbed/kidnapped while they float down shipping lanes.