There is an ongoing debate between centrist Democrats and progressives in Washington over giving President Biden war powers to go to war with China in the case that Beijing invades Taiwan, Foreign Policy reported on Wednesday.
The centrists are in favor of expanding Biden’s authorities even though any military action against China risks nuclear war, while the progressives favor the current policy.
One Democrat in the House, Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA), the House Foreign Affairs Committee vice-chair, made the case to give Biden the war powers in an op-ed for The Washington Post.
Luria’s concern is that if China moves to take Taiwan, getting authorization from Congress would take too long. “So if you can’t act quickly enough, China overwhelmingly takes Taiwan,” she told Foreign Policy.
Luria frames the need for authorization to fight China as necessary to “de-escalate” the situation despite the obvious risks. “Without the ability for the president to react immediately, any delay would prevent the United States from responding, at a lower level of conflict, to repel an invasion and de-escalate the situation,” she wrote in the Post.
Republican hawks have already drawn up legislation that would give Biden the authority to go to war with China over Taiwan. “My Republican colleagues introduced the Taiwan Invasion Prevention Act in February to grant the president the authority to act against an invasion of Taiwan and prevent a fait accompli. This act is a good starting point to address a legal dilemma,” Luria said in the Post.
The Taiwan Invasion Prevention Act would authorize “the President to use the Armed Forces to defend Taiwan against a direct attack by China’s military, a taking of Taiwan’s territory by China, or a threat that endangers the lives of civilians in Taiwan or members of Taiwan’s military.”
Matt Duss, an aide to Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT), told Foreign policy that the current policy of not committing to defending Taiwan, known as “strategic ambiguity,” shouldn’t be changed.
“A policy of ambiguity may not be the most emotionally satisfying for DC hawks, but it’s working,” Duss said. “The dangers of creating another open-ended war authorization should be obvious.”
The renewed debate was sparked by China’s recent flights into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), which have been falsely portrayed as airspace violations by Western media. An ADIZ is an area where a country wants foreign aircraft to identify itself. The concept is not covered by any international laws or treaties, and the Chinese warplanes usually enter the southwest corner of the ADIZ, nowhere near the island of Taiwan.
Missing from most reports on China’s ADIZ flights is how much the US has increased its military activity in the region. Beijing’s moves around Taiwan are clearly fueled by the US’s presence and Washington’s steps to boost ties with Taipei. A change in policy in the form of a war powers authorization would only raise tensions in the region and make a conflict more likely.
Biden can’t even go to the bathroom alone. Hell no to giving this senile puppet such power.
bbuut bbut eh? bild buck betta? blink blink zzzzzzzzzzz
Or anyone else regardless of their mental acuity.
Loop-de-loo https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9c8de4239b191f9f81d8030b87af8151200f5c5ea9ae33b0b4ca4a3f880fec3c.jpg p loonies never learn
They can discern the weather but not the times in which they live.
After 20 years of invasions and outright murder from Iraq to Somalia.. y’all ought to have no doubt of who y’all are enabling… Destroying and seeking to start conflict while boasting nothing bad will ever happen to us..all the while 3,000 ppl died today alone in the US from a global pandemic that curbed and quarantined man’s destructive selfish pursuits.
Our (mankind) response from those that claim to be awoke, create a vaccine just to go back to the old ways of life that brought all this about.
You don’t understand: It’s all a live action video game. Smoke a joint and enjoy Joe Biden’s “Squid Game”
Clearly this is the policy trajectory, …this the opening move against public opinion. The decision has already been made, and on a much higher level than “Lunch Bucket” Joe.
The pols will now begin with each his obligatory signature posing for the benefit of us “the people” -who still believe we live in a democracy, in the prescribed temporal frame the thing will get passed into law, and we will all get back to our kewpie dolls satisfied that “democracy is messy, but finally produces the optimal result.”
“Republican hawks have already drawn up legislation that would give Biden the authority to go to war with China over Taiwan.”
And apparently so have the republicans.
Finally: America United!
I guess these war mongers don’t really read or can’t as the US military has just issued a warning to Biden that the US cannot go up against China andor Russia without experiencing a severe defeat.
That warning pertained to conventional war … nuclear war offers much better odds of winning… especially a preemptive strike.
Seriously!?!?
Gallows humor. But seriously anyone talking about military action over Taiwan has to be talking about nuclear war. The losing side in a conventional war will go nuclear. And if that’s inevitable, why mess around? Just empty your silos preemptively.
That may be more humane than “conventional war”. This isn’t 1941. Within a few hours of initial hostilities, massive cyber-war, anti-satellite weapons, EMP weapons, chemical and biological war and the like will turn the USA into a simulacra of Dante’s Inferno. Likewise for China.
I can’t say that I disagree with your analysis. However, from what I have read, China will not attempt to retake Taiwan until it knows it can do it successfully without initiating a regional war. I am not sure how much the US wants to go to war over Taiwan in any event.
I think that’s true. China is very vulnerable, relying so heavily on energy (ME oil) and food (at least 100 million tons year in and year out). The US can cut off food and energy to China without firing a shot with blockades and embargoes at the Suez and Panama canals. Likely China is using military intimidation tactics to affect internal Taiwanese politics. But if the US prepares for war, building up weapons and related stockpiles, sailing in fleets and landing fighter squadrons, don’t expect China to standby like Saddam. They hold the cards because there’s 6000 miles of ocean between China and the US.
Again, I agree. The problem is that China has enough highly sophisticated missiles to take out any American fleet that threatens it. In addition, Russia may likely come to China’s defense, while Iran takes out Israel with a massive volley of missile fire to divert US attentions to a second front. Israel will lose very quickly making any US attempts to rescue her somewhat ineffective. Any which way you look at it, the US loses… Even with the use of nukes…
Not sure about the Israeli part. They DO have 200 nukes and will play the Samson Option if they need to. I doubt Iran will start anything. Israel will fight to the last drop of American blood. Yes, I agree there’s a good chance Russia allies with China… I doubt NATO or anyone else will side with the US in such a war.
My last reading of the Israeli nukes is that aside from the recent implementation of nuclear missiles on their subs, they do not have any ground sites that can launch these missiles forcing them to be deliverd by air. I am quite sure that Iran will be able to deflect them if Russia provides them with the S-500 in a timely manner if things heat up with China…
The announced goal of the CCP is to take Taiwan by the 100th anniversary of its takeover of China (2049), and presumably to do so without having to fire a shot.
But there’s a worse path that things can take, and that is the path of desperation. Since Deng’s time, there’s been an attempt to leverage increasing prosperity (created by economic abandonment of Marxism) for the purpose of maintaining complete CCP political control. As the increase in prosperity winds down and then begins to reverse, the CCP is going to face a domestic situation that might cause it to see a foreign war as a way to “unify the country” and put off its collapse.
I thought these people were intelligent, you know, graduates of elite college, graduates of elite law schools, just really, really smart people. Then there is the neanderthal part of their brains.
No, Congress is looking to once again unload its responsibility for debating the decision to go to war, and for each man or woman to go on record as yea or nay. Anything to avoid being held accountable, right?
I believe that at this point, returning to the policy of MAD is the only way to deal with China. They don’t want to be destroyed, nor does the US. Taiwan has already been left to Communist China. Nixon and Kissinger did this in the 1970’s. The present administration won’t use nuclear weapons if Taiwan is finally and fully surrendered however, China needs to know we will not stand for any attack on the homeland. China will not surrender their nuclear capability nor should we.
China has no interest in invading and occupying foreign territory. That’s an Anglo-American specialty. Certainly there are no plans to invade a dumpster fire like the USA.China’s interest is preeminence in technology and economics. However they are very territorial and will respond savagely if the US encourages secession or the Regime Change (which it does).
Also missing from the discussion is the radical Taiwan government’s move towards formal independence which in the past was against American policy that neither side should attempt to change the status quo in that regard.
Aww, c’mon. No worries about war with China, folks. Amerikkka only declares war on nations that don’t have the capability to fight back.
And even those wars Amerikkka loses!
No way Jose! Taiwan needs to figure out how to move the island like in Lost for otherwise, China is going to own them in the next 40 years or so.
So this is how the world ends: The US starting a nuclear war over a Chinese province that’s been part of China for 18 centuries. Until Just three years ago the US acknowledged there was only one China.
But hey: there’s bipartisan support for nuclear war. Wonderful to see progressives lining up a commitment to a war that will destroy the planet with their Republican colleagues!
The “Make WWIII EASIER ACT Of 2021”