The US has stated that it will defend Europe, through NATO, if attacked….now we will fund the Ukraine efforts to expel the Russians….then we will defend South Korea from aggression from the North and Taiwan from any moves by China and now a new ‘needy’ nation is on the payroll…..the Philippines.
The US has promised to support the nation if problems arise.
President Biden hosted Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the White House on Monday amid heightened tensions with China and told him that the US commitment to defending the Philippines is “ironclad.”
In comments ahead of a meeting with Marcos, Biden said the US “remains ironclad in our commitment to the defense of the Philippines, including the South China Sea, and we’re going to continue to support the Philippines’ military modernization goals.”
Marcos told Biden that the Philippines was located in “arguably the most complicated geopolitical situation in the world right now.”
“And so, it is only natural that — for the Philippines to look to its sole treaty partner in the world to strengthen and to redefine the relationship that we have and the roles that we play in the face of those rising tensions that we see now around the South China Sea and Asia-Pacific and Indo-Pacific regions,” the Philippine leader added.
…
Biden and Marcos agreed to take other steps to strengthen the military alliance. According to the White House, the US will transfer military equipment to the Philippines’ armed forces, including “two Island-class patrol vessels, two Protector-class patrol vessels, and three C-130H aircraft.”
According to the White House, Biden underscored that “an armed attack in the Pacific, which includes the South China Sea, on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft, including those of the Coast Guard, would invoke US mutual defense commitments under Article IV of the 1951 US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty.”
The White House said the two countries have also adopted “Bilateral Defense Guidelines that institutionalize key bilateral priorities, mechanisms, and processes to deepen alliance cooperation and interoperability across land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace.”
(antiwar.com)
This ought to keep the War industry stocks strong…..and that is a great reason for all this adventurism.
Who will be the next nation to get on the US gravy train?
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
In Saner Thought 
When they started calling the Korean War (A Police Action) I began to think, “We should stay the hell out of all these foreign entanglements and make sure we can defend ourselves and let it go at that. But it appears that there must be a bunch of crazy people making the decisions about how and when and where we should be endangering our democracy by spreading ourselves too thin. Of course of adversaries love it.
John it is propaganda to say that we are in danger….I mean life here will not change one iota when the Ukraine thing comes to an end…..these leaders need to worry more about the people of this country and less about spreading our bullshit. chuq
Read my comment over again and you will discover that I said exactly what you responded with … we always endanger ourselves when we spread ourselves too thin and we should stay the hell out of all these foreign entanglements. They sure as hell would not come to our aid if the situation was reversed. I think we have promised much more protection to foreigners than we can actually provide.
They may come but they are not capable of much…..chuq
None of them would ever remember what we did for them and none of them would come.
Exactly so why buy friends if they are as fickle as our leaders? chuq
I spent a lifetime buying friends. But they were only playthings. I found that the bought ones were totally fickle and the good ones very few.
Just like our foreign policy these days. chuq
I saw a BBC report last week about a new US base on an island in the Phillipines, designed as a ‘deterrent to Chinese expansion in the region’. The Marcos family and Duerte have all siphoned tens of millions from the country’s economy into their own pockets over the decades, and the government there has been completely corrupt during their time, including blatantly rigging elections and intimidating voters.
I can see no good reason for sending more money to that country just to have it stolen by the leader and his political chums. It certainly won’t help any of the ordinary Filipinos.
Best wishes, Pete.
Typical so damn typical….I see the US wants to build a base in Finland now…..we always prop up the corrupt. chuq
Finland is corrupt??
Leaders are…..sorry I was unclear. chuq
It’s easy to cast a blanket statement regarding foreign aid…..but the sad reality is that most nations will willingly gravitate into the sphere of a dominant power. If not us, then Russia, China, India, etc. This then goes on to affect access to global supply chains, natural and digital resources. I’m all for being isolationist in theory…..but the sad fact is that sooner or later, that strategy will have an increasingly deleterious effect on our lives here in the U.S.
And a statement about the security is as much a blanket as mine…all this depends on where the bread is buttered. chuq
Yeah, isolationism turned out to be a bad idea during WWII, as well. I can definitely understand why Americans feel why what goes on in Europe or Asia will not affect them, and can sympathize with that view, but sooner or later that attitude comes back to bite us in the butt….
Certainly, our country should require certain commitment in return. What about having the autocrat commit to allowing certain human rights to its citizens? Are there any political prisoners being held against their will in that country? There may be other items to which I’m not privy. I don’t pretend to have lots of knowledge in that sphere, but I believe we (USA) should require some fair exchanges for committing to military assistance for that country. I don’t know if the Philippines partners with other countries for their protection, and if so, do they have agreements that require it to make certain concessions for military aid?
Thanx for the visit and I think it is about the cash….it is fair to demand certain conditions be met but we give them a blank check to do as they see fit….usually into a personal account somewhere. chuq