Hundreds of US Marines and US Army soldiers participated in military exercises on the Philippine island of Baton, just over 100 miles across the Bashi Channel from Taiwan.
The drills are part of the Balikatan Exercise, which is being touted as the largest-ever joint military exercise between the US and the Philippines. They come after the US inked a deal expanding its military presence in the Southeast Asian nation, all part of Washington’s plans to prepare for a future conflict with China.
This iteration of the Balikatan marked the first time the US and the Philippines brought the exercises to Manila’s northern islands. Maj. Gen. Joseph Ryan, commander of the US Army’s 25th Infantry Division, told Financial Times the Philippines was inclined to demonstrate defense of the island due to “the insidious nature of the People’s Republic of China.”
“We’re expanding our posture to this island here, on the South China Sea, near Taiwan. Doing both of those things, we’re demonstrating our will to help our allies and partners. This should be a signal to the PRC that we’re serious,” Ryan added.
Financial Times also spoke with locals who expressed concern about the drills. Some Filipinos are worried that the growing military relationship between the US and the Philippines could drag Manila into a war with China.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the American troops carried Javelin anti-tank missiles and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles during the drills, which took place in the town of Basco on Baton Island. A HIMARS rocket system was also set up on the opposite side of the island, which could be used to target ships hundreds of miles away.
If you keep “rehearsing war”, you will eventually have it… The optimum way to approach this is to have the dialogue you need now to avoid war in the future…
But to have dialogue you have to treat countries as equals and the yanks will never do that because they are EXCEPTIONAL and they are on a mission for God , they really do think they where put on the Earth to do Gods work .
Your article reminds me of a line from the Blues Brothers.
https://www.indianpunchline.com/pivotal-moment-in-india-russia-relations/
Pivotal moment in India-Russia relations
That’s the way to counter US hegemony. The US will either get with the program or slide into irrelevancy. This is very encouraging.
But will the US go quietly into obscurity or will it make a grand exit?
If there’s a nuclear war then all bets are off. In that case there won’t be a US to reform itself. If there’s not a nuclear war then the US will continue its decline into chaos and poverty until enough people can work up the gumption to create a form of governance that is not based on allowing a set of privileged elites to establish the rules and enforce them in a way that enriches themselves at the expense of all the rest of us. Those of us who have eyes to see with and brains to think with can see where that has taken us. Unfortunately, for now, there’s not many of us around.
Most of the population of America are like the Ostrich sticking its head in the sand when the lions are charging
They want to live off of free stuff and they want to justify it by way of virtue signaling.
My money is on a grand exit making WW2 look like a side show once the nukes begin to fly.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/275cc18c0db7655652c4ec4ff8d1edd4f0893157d8b5f13a0993bcd9b88471ab.jpg Sigh…………………………………………..
Artwork is done by a friend of mine.
I’ll add some verse: The hideous, grotesque shape of man, standing naked, the nature of our beginnings.
I would bet on a grand exit taking everyone with them
My hope is that global de-dollarization will accelerate and nuclear war can be avoided.
The Global South will have a relatively optimistic future. For all intents, the US is done.
I agree. The quicker the global south can get away from the dollar the better it will be for them. My main concern is what kind of violent tricks the US will carry out in the interim. If there’s one upside to the Nordstream destruction it’s that it showed the rest of the world exactly what the US is capable of doing. Everybody is on notice that they need to be on guard.
It really tells you some thing about the NATO LACKEYS dosen`t it they all know who carried out the attack but stay silent , why ? , in my opinion if just one NATO LACKEY comes out and say`s it , it will be the end of NATO .
The Japanese were sort of on guard when two cities were vaporized.The bombing of Dresden was not a nice thing to do. Killing millions of Native Americans and putting the rest onto reservations while stealing their land was not kosher.And then we have the importation of slaves for over 150 years. This is what America has been about. To expect change is delusional.
If it is Global, it cannot be just South. Are you low IQ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_North_and_Global_South
If the yanks take on China how will they supply their Infantry their supply line run back thousands of miles there fleets of ships will be at the mercy of Chinese hyper sonic missiles the US navy has already said it wouldn`t be able to get close enough to China to launch fighters and get them back before they run out of fuel not to mention subs ? , China will be fighting in it`s own back yard , Japan , South Korea would be the first to be hit leaving the yanks high and dry , China isn`t Iraq , Libya , Afghanistan ect
Guam has a lot of firepower