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If the Colombian government knew in 1982 the location of $10B in gold, it seems odd that they would not have simply seized it. I know underwater archeology is hard, but if you're simply interested in grabbing gold, is it really beyond the reach of the Colombian navy?

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Have you ever considered how woefully incompetent most militaries are? Not just at defense and war, but basically everything. Look at the Soviet Union after Nazi Germany invaded or Russia during the mid 90s.

The main advantage most of the NATO military has is the incredibly deep pockets of the nations they defend. Even then, the US has had some spectacularly bad incidents. Consider that a US naval submarine actually hit an underwater mountain off Guam. It's not exactly like those are small or move very often.

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