The Infrastructure Wars: Why Your Internet Speed Matters as Much as Nuclear Subs

Here’s something they don’t teach you in civics class: the country that controls the pipes, cables, and shipping lanes basically runs the world. And right now, we’re in the middle of the biggest infrastructure pissing contest since the Cold War, except this time it’s not just about nuclear missiles—it’s about who gets to control how your Amazon package gets delivered and whether your Zoom call drops.

Trump gets this. China definitely gets this. The question is whether the rest of us are paying attention.

The Canal That Could Break the World

Let’s start with the Panama Canal, because if you think that’s just some old waterway from your high school history book, you’re missing the point entirely. We’re talking about a 50-mile stretch of water that basically controls global trade. Every year, about 15,000 ships squeeze through this thing, carrying $270 billion worth of stuff. That’s your iPhone, your car parts, your morning coffee—all of it funnels through Panama.

And guess who’s been quietly taking control of the ports on both ends? China. Through a bunch of Hong Kong companies that sound perfectly legitimate until you realize they’re basically Beijing’s way of getting their hands on the most important shipping chokepoint in the Western Hemisphere.

This isn’t some abstract geopolitical chess game. If China decides to mess with canal operations—say, during a Taiwan crisis—they could screw up global supply chains overnight. Gas prices would spike. Store shelves would empty. The U.S. Navy would have a hell of a time moving ships between the Atlantic and Pacific.

Trump’s response has been typical Trump: loud, direct, and probably effective. He’s basically telling China to sell their canal interests to American companies like BlackRock, or else. The “or else” part isn’t spelled out, but given that we’re talking about Donald Trump, it’s probably not going to be subtle.

The Chinese, meanwhile, are playing the victim card like pros. Their UN ambassador is out there saying the U.S. is the real aggressor, that America’s trying to bully poor little Panama. It’s a smart play, actually—makes China look like the defender of small countries while they quietly tighten their grip on global trade routes.

But here’s the kicker: Panama’s president is stuck in the middle of this mess, trying to figure out whether to side with the Americans (who built the canal in the first place) or the Chinese (who are offering to build his country’s infrastructure for the next century). It’s like being a kid with divorced parents who are both trying to buy your love, except if you pick wrong, your entire country could end up as a pawn in someone else’s game.

Meanwhile, Your Internet Sucks

While all this international drama is playing out, there’s another infrastructure battle happening right here at home that’s probably more relevant to your daily life: the fight over who’s going to fix America’s garbage broadband network.

Take WideOpenWest—stupid name, I know—a cable company that went from being worth $17 a share to $3.41 faster than you can say “buffering.” Now some private equity guys are buying it for $1.5 billion, which sounds like a lot until you realize that’s basically pocket change in infrastructure terms.

WOW! (yes, that’s actually what they call themselves) serves about 2 million customers in places like Ohio and Alabama—you know, the parts of America that tech companies pretend don’t exist. These are the folks who still deal with internet speeds that would make a 1990s dial-up modem laugh.

Here’s the thing: 14.5 million Americans still don’t have access to high-speed internet. In 2025. We’re talking about people who can’t work from home, can’t do telehealth visits, can’t help their kids with online homework. It’s not just inconvenient—it’s economic discrimination.

The private equity guys buying WOW! say they’re going to upgrade everything to fiber optic, make it faster, make it better. Maybe they will. Or maybe they’ll load it up with debt and squeeze every penny out of it before selling the pieces. With private equity, you never really know.

But at least someone’s trying to fix the problem, which is more than you can say for most of our infrastructure these days.

The Real Story Nobody’s Talking About

Here’s what connects the Panama Canal drama to your crappy internet connection: it’s all about control. China figured out a long time ago that if you control the infrastructure, you control everything else. They’ve been building ports, railways, and data networks all over the world through their Belt and Road Initiative. Meanwhile, we’ve been arguing about whether infrastructure spending counts as socialism.

Trump’s approach is basically “fight fire with fire.” China wants to control global shipping? Fine, we’ll take back the Panama Canal. American broadband sucks? Let private equity fix it with market forces. It’s not elegant, but it might actually work.

The problem is that infrastructure takes forever to build but can be disrupted overnight. China’s been playing the long game for decades, slowly taking control of ports, supply chains, and telecommunications networks. We’re trying to catch up while they’re already three moves ahead.

And here’s the scary part: most Americans have no idea this is even happening. They think infrastructure is just about potholes and bridges. They don’t realize that the fiber optic cable carrying their Netflix stream might be owned by a Chinese company, or that their Amazon package might pass through a Chinese-controlled port.

Why This Actually Matters to You

You might be thinking, “Okay, but how does this affect my life?” Fair question. Here’s how:

If China controls enough shipping infrastructure, they can basically hold the global economy hostage whenever they want. Remember the supply chain disasters during COVID? That was just a preview of what could happen if a hostile power decided to mess with global trade routes.

If American broadband infrastructure stays fragmented and underfunded, we’re going to fall further behind countries that treat internet access like a national priority. Your kids will grow up with worse connectivity than kids in Estonia. That’s not a joke—Estonia actually has better broadband than most of America.

If we don’t get serious about infrastructure competition, we’re going to wake up one day and realize that China controls the pipes, cables, and shipping lanes that make modern life possible. At that point, it won’t matter how many aircraft carriers we have.

The Private Equity Solution

The WOW! buyout is interesting because it shows how America is trying to solve infrastructure problems: throw private money at them and hope for the best. DigitalBridge, the company buying WOW!, manages $100 billion in assets. They’re not doing this out of patriotic duty—they think they can make money fixing America’s broadband problems.

Maybe that’ll work. Private companies are usually better at actually getting stuff done than government agencies. But private companies also care about profits more than national security. If upgrading rural internet in Alabama doesn’t generate enough return on investment, guess what’s not getting upgraded?

This is the fundamental tension in American infrastructure policy: we want market solutions to strategic problems. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The jury’s still out on whether private equity can save American broadband.

What Trump’s Really Up To

If you step back and look at the big picture, Trump’s doing something pretty smart: he’s turning infrastructure into a national security issue. The Panama Canal isn’t just about trade—it’s about making sure China can’t choke off American commerce. Broadband isn’t just about entertainment—it’s about making sure American workers can compete in a digital economy.

This isn’t the kind of infrastructure policy you learned about in economics class. This is infrastructure as geopolitical warfare. Control the chokepoints, control the game.

The Chinese understand this perfectly. They’ve been building infrastructure to extend their influence for years. We’re finally starting to catch up, but we’re doing it the American way: through private investment, market competition, and probably a lot of arguing about who’s going to pay for it.

The Bottom Line

Here’s the thing about infrastructure: it’s boring until it’s not. Nobody cares about fiber optic cables until their internet goes down. Nobody thinks about shipping routes until their stuff stops arriving. Nobody worries about who controls critical infrastructure until it’s too late to do anything about it.

Right now, we’re in a race to see who’s going to control the infrastructure that makes modern civilization work. China’s been running this race for decades. We’re just now realizing we need to start running too.

The Panama Canal fight and the WOW! buyout are just the beginning. Over the next few years, you’re going to see more infrastructure battles—some international, some domestic, all of them important in ways that most people won’t understand until after they’re over.

The country that wins this infrastructure race gets to write the rules for how the global economy works. The country that loses gets to follow someone else’s rules.

That’s why your internet speed might matter as much as nuclear submarines. It’s all connected, it’s all strategic, and it’s all happening right now while most people are worried about other stuff.

Welcome to the infrastructure wars. Hope you’re ready.