Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Saturday delivered a speech where he reaffirmed that the Pentagon’s top priority is countering China, which he accused of seeking to reshape the so-called “international order.”
“Now, the National Defense Strategy is clear-eyed about our main competitors. And that starts with the People’s Republic of China (PRC),” Austin said at the Reagan National Defense Forum.
Austin said that China is the “only country with both the will and, increasingly, the power to reshape its region and the international order to suit its authoritarian preferences.” He said the US “won’t let that happen” and that the Pentagon is “aligning our budget as never before to the China challenge.”
The former Raytheon board member set a dramatic tone and said the next few years will “set the terms of our competition” with China and will “determine whether our children and grandchildren inherit an open world of rules and rights — or whether they face emboldened autocrats who seek to dominate by force and fear.”
A day earlier, Austin unveiled the new Northrop Grumman-made B-21 Raider bomber, the first new American aircraft bomber in 30 years. Austin said Saturday that the B-21 is “the long-range strike stealth bomber that will soon be the backbone of the Air Force bomber fleet.”
The B-21 is part of the modernization of the US nuclear triad, which could cost up to $1.5 trillion, and US military officials have made clear the new bomber is meant to intimidate China.
Last year, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said he wanted to see the US invest in new military technologies that will “scare China” and that the B-21 would be “very intimidating.” He later said that his priorities as Air Force secretary are “China, China, and China.”
The new multipolar world will reshape itself with each nation deciding its internal affairs without interference from, nor by interfering with, other nations. The US will just be one of those nations.
Our “region” contains Canada, Mexico, Central and South America. Period. What we have done is expand on the Monroe Doctrine to include the world. Hence 1,000 military bases spread throughout the world.
Maybe not South America. Much of Central America is under our control though.
The Monroe Doctrine only applied to (mostly European) countries trying to re-colonialize independent countries in the Americas. Last valid assertion of doctrine was 1890s when British Guiana, still a British colony, was violating independent Venezuela’s territory.
What north Americans have not noticed is that Latin America has eclipsed totalitarian US culture.
If the priorities are “China, China, China” why does it feel like they’re in actuality “Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine”?
It seems like a Bi-Polar condition…
You are both funny. Thanks. For you I suggest today’s pre news view https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Our military budget is literally more than twice as China’s (which include stuff like the Chinese NASA and their space mission) and still more than the 5 next countries combined. But all MIC hawks like the former Raytheon board member Austin wants is more and more and more money. If we want compete with China, let’s invest in education and infrastructure instead of bombs. Instead, we just want to use the military to beat people into submission. Some “international order” we envision…
I suspect China is getting better value for money than we are. Plus if their objective is to push us away from China they can build 3 quiet diesel electric subs for the same price as we build one nuclear sub, they can build short range heavily armed ships for less $$ than we can build cross oceans and then mess people up ships. The advantage is to the defense.
I’ve read China has more honors student than the US has students.
Prisons are a better capitalist investment than education in the US.
I suppose Mr. Lloyd did not read the dailies that reported the joint flight of Russian and Chinese large bombers. Together. Then landing, each at their partner’s airfield to refuel. I do not refer him as “general” Lloyd Austin, because he appears to lack the brain power to have that designation.
As compared to other generals? Especially other generals that were also secretary of defense?
I was one of the few to call out a trillion dollar on military budget.
One of the few million?
Unfortunately, there are no prizes available as TPTB are gearing up for Armageddon.
LOL! Thanks Donna.
So you think that this is exemplary?
By changing the world order Austin means that any attempt to stop the US from ruling the world with missiles,bombers and aircraft carriers will be resisted until everyone is dead.The idea that the so called third world has a say or a voices is a form of Treason.Without economic and military exploitation the US economy will collapse which is not a bad idea.
CHINA!!!! ‘Facing’ China? Challenging China?…. Sounds like war rhetoric and preparations….
More like a Hollywood movie written by CIA civilian morale handlers.
Countries bordering China can stop the yanks in their tracks by denying the USSAF access to their air space , without air support the US Military is a dead duck .
Yep, Russia is off the board so all we have is Chine and the EU or perhaps South America and Africa
Easy schmeasy.
Lloyd Austin’s speech is nothing more than the ramping up of continuing US global hegemony and imperialism – under the misguided perception that China is out to dethrone America. It is also the political desire to ensure the continued survival of the military-industrial complex, for without wars it will stagnate or disintegrate from lack of military orders. The US global dominance is being upheld by American military might, technological superiority and dollar hegemony, but nothing else. As China is seen as a rising challenge to its current supremacy, the American political elites are in panicky mood now. Hence, their obsession with “China, China, China”, or rather “the destruction of China, China, China.” To achieve this malicious aim, it could well mean the end of the world as we know it. The US must be cognizant that the world does not belong to it alone – other nations have their inalienable rights to exist too.