There is a major concern, and with good reason, over the viable verbal, and now physical, threats to Taiwan by China.
This has been a long time coming. China has been biding its time, waiting for the right opportunity when it perceives the United States as too weak or unwilling to engage in a war to protect a staunch ally and hedge against the spread of communism and communist Chinese goals for world dominance.
That said, something that also needs to be considered is that a move against Taiwan by China may be coordinated with a surprise attack by North Korea against South Korea, to divert U.S. assets and attention. These actions will be swift, and use overwhelming force to take out Taiwan and South Korea before sufficient U.S. forces can be mustered and engaged.
Unless Japan and Australia are willing to quickly bring assets into play and engage communist Chinese aggression, such a move would put the United States in a very precarious position because we do not have enough assets in that region to take on that level of aggression on two fronts. This is one reason why 20+ years of war in the Middle East and Central Asia, and military budget cuts, have had a depleting effect on our ability to maintain sufficient forces to fight a two-front war.
I do not have confidence that the current administration, secretary of defense, and top military brass have the foresight or hubris to begin planning for such a scenario. Our military is now more interested in declaring Catholics and Evangelical Christians in the military as “extremists,” and making the military “gender-neutral,” while designing “maternity uniforms,” than planning for the inevitable confrontation with communist China.
Richard M. Cortellini
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