This response was disproportionate and ahistorical. And the announcement last week of the Australia-U. The U.
Most U. Take the Australian case: For seven decades, Australia has found the U. The two countries have fought beside each other in every major conflict of the 20th and 21st centuries. Yet there has always been a lively domestic debate about America. The unimpressive U. Still, support for the U. Australian soldiers fought in Afghanistan for many years, so August was a difficult month. In recent years, Canberra has faced increasing pressure from Beijing. This includes trade sanctions imposed to punish Australia for the sin of calling for an independent international investigation into the origins of the coronavirus.
Uncle Sam is essentially bankrupt. At the same time the US is still involved in a trade and economic fight with China and Europe. It is time to stop acting like America is an economic superpower flush with cash and able to underwrite most of the planet. Tariffs, sanctions, and subsidies all hurt the US economically. At the same time, US retaliation is almost certainly doomed to fail.
If Beijing surrendered to US demands, its officials would have to wonder: where would US policymakers stop? The president has been reduced to pathetic begging in his attempt to get Tehran to simply talk about making a new deal. More sanctions are not better, nor even necessarily more effective. The more penalties Washington piles on China, the less flexibility US policymakers have to address potentially more serious problems in the future. And if everything is sanctioned, and for multiple reasons, Beijing is more likely to choose confrontation over negotiation.
I have often asked South Korean diplomats if their government would allow the US to use bases on the peninsula in a war against China. Most look ready to run screaming from the room. It is very likely that South Korea does not want to join the US and uses the threat of Chinese retaliation as a good excuse.
Canadian troops have joined U. And Canadian warships have sailed through the Taiwan Strait at least three times the past year, joining the United States in challenging China. The Aussies do more than enjoy freedom at home; they defend and promote it abroad. In Operation Iraqi Freedom, Australia was one of just three nations that joined the United States in the initial invasion.
Likewise, Australia was one of the small handful of nations that joined the United States in conducting airstrikes against ISIS in both Iraq and Syria — and one of even smaller group that also deployed troops for ground operations. Closer to its neighborhood, Australia is working closely with the United States, Japan and India as part of the Quad security partnership to deter Beijing: conducting freedom-of-navigation operations in and above the South China Sea, participating in joint maneuvers, and beefing up military capabilities.
Australia is increasing defense spending 40 percent the next decade; doubling its submarine fleet; deploying anti-ship missile systems, anti-submarine systems, cyber-defenses and squadrons of Fs; and hosting U. Marines, Fs and Bs for extended rotations. Australia in October announced that it will, after a year hiatus, rejoin naval exercises featuring the United States, Japan and India.
Tokyo recently used some of that wealth to purchase Mageshima Island in the East China Sea from a private seller. Japanese defense forces are now constructing military-grade runways there, with plans for U. And Japan deploys a fleet of eight Aegis missile-defense warships. The core feature of U. Similarly, the Nixon administration urged Asian allies to play a larger role in their own defense as early as the late s.
Allied defense budgets have waxed and waned—as have U. In the past decade, however, renewed concerns about Chinese and Russia aggression—as well as calls from both the Obama and Trump administrations for greater allied defense spending—have led many U.
In Asia, Australia , Japan , and South Korea have all announced plans for significant new defense investments, much of which includes purchases of U. Only four non-U. NATO members also recently agreed to a new cost-sharing formula that will result in Germany and the U. The largest concentration of U. Allies contribute to the cost of U. South Korea and Japan have also shouldered significant portions of the spending for some of the largest U.
While the formal defense requirements of U. On a daily basis, the U.
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