Since Foundations is currently at third place, I think it's important to address the major flaw in it that makes me oppose the plan. Picking "A standing core" now. I think that approach is terrible.
If we look at our strategic situation, we are essentially in a modernization race, especially in military matters, with Victoria. A race we have a head start in, but also a race in which Victoria has an easier time moving forward by virtue of their foreign patron, Russia. With that viewpoint in mind, our AP must be carefully spend, and our current head-start must be maintained and expanded at all costs. A standing core moves us a good bit further by slowing us down for the rest of the seven-year-plan. While the military benefit is good and even necessary in the middle of the plan, it's a terrible pick at the start of it. Our current high numbers of free AP are the result of economic extortion of the Victorian governments, a state of affairs that is ending soon with the coming end of the Victorian Civil War. We must build our economy and state revenue now (increasing free AP) in order to start with the costly military options in the middle of the plan. Now is not the right time and sacrificing our advantage to combat a manageable and constant background problem is a bad idea.
Also, to the people who are voting "Retrain the Devil Brigade": The leading option is "[DEVILS] Retain the Devil Brigade as an expeditionary warfare unit forming the basis of the CFC's special operations forces contingent.". I would urge you to change your vote to that in order to not split our vote two ways.
