Tag: Asia

NATO Moves East

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has decided to open an office in Japan to help deal with the growing threat from China and other future problems.

NATO is planning to open a liaison office in Japan next year, the alliance’s first in Asia, Nikkei Asia reported Wednesday.

In recent years, NATO has turned its gaze toward the Asia Pacific region and named China a “systemic challenge” in its 2022 Strategic Concept. As part of its strategy against China, the alliance is deepening cooperation with countries in the region.

According to Nikkei, the purpose of the liaison office in Japan is to “allow the military alliance to conduct periodic consultations with Japan and key partners in the region, such as South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand as China emerges as a new challenge, alongside its traditional focus on Russia.”

The report said NATO and Japan will take more steps to increase cooperation by signing an agreement known as an Individually Tailored Partnership Programme ahead of the NATO summit that will be held in Vilnius, Lithuania, in June. Japan also plans to open an independent mission to NATO, separate from the Embassy in Belgium.

In response to the news, China warned of NATO’s plans to expand into Asia. “Asia is an anchor for peace and stability and a promising land for cooperation and development, not a wrestling ground for geopolitical competition,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.

“NATO’s continued eastward foray into the Asia Pacific and interference in regional affairs will inevitably undermine regional peace and stability and stoke camp confrontation. This calls for high vigilance among regional countries,” she added.

(antiwar.com)

With the move into Asia the organization should consider re-naming the group to reflect its expansion into the rest of the world outside Europe…..something that will reflect its growing power…..something like maybe the United Nations…..oh wait that one is already taken…..think on.

Yep I do not think the US should encourage this move…..we already have a strong presence in Asia thanks to the mash-up in the South China Sea and the so-called threat to Taiwan.

Yet another way to siphon off taxpayer dollars….just what our budget needs these days.

Whole NATO prepares to expand apparently so does Russia.

Russia will “develop” its military installations in Central Asian ally Kyrgyzstan, the Kremlin said Monday, following talks between the two countries’ leaders in Moscow.

“The heads of state emphasized the importance of strengthening the Kyrgyz Republic’s armed forces and developing Russian military facilities on its territory,” the Kremlin said in a statement.

Kyrgyzstan, a majority-Muslim country of nearly seven million people, hosts a Russian military base made up of an airfield, a naval installation on Lake Issyk-Kul and several other sites.

Russia and Kyrgyzstan, an ex-Soviet republic, are linked through a Moscow-led military alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO).

According to the statement released by the Kremlin, the two countries also expect to “deepen military and technical cooperation” as well as their economic and cultural relations in order to “reach a new level of integration.”

(thedefensepost.com)

Just when does this insanity end?  (That is rhetorical)

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

NATO In Asia?

I read this and immediately asked….”WTF?”

My question is why?

Stoltenberg will meet South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol during the four-day trip that begins in Seoul on Sunday, Yonhap News Agency reported, citing a presidential official. He will also meet Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo.

As well as Yoon, the Nato secretary general is expected to meet South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin and other senior officials while in Seoul. The Yonhap report said US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin would also visit South Korea next week.

Stoltenberg’s trip comes after the unprecedented attendance of the South Korean and Japanese leaders at a Nato summit in Madrid in June, when the military alliance labelled China as a “systemic challenge to Euro-Atlantic security” in a key strategy document.

Yoon and Kishida also met US President Joe Biden for a trilateral summit on the sidelines of the Madrid talks, the first time leaders of the three nations had met since 2017.

Both South Korea and Japan have sought to step up ties with Nato amid nuclear and missile threats from North Korea and growing tensions with China.

Choo Jae-woo, a professor of Chinese studies at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, said that during the trip Stoltenberg would likely discuss the countries’ goals in their Indo-Pacific strategy, with the conversation focusing largely on China.

He expected the talks to be “an icebreaker” that could see Stoltenberg planning for future dialogue on security and building communication channels with the two countries.

https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/as-nato-chief-visits-south-korea-and-japan-china-will-be-high-on-agenda/ar-AA16S38S

If NATO is going to be the main international engine for war should it not be re-named something more appropriate?

Does the expansion into Asia violate something in the chart?

Let me see….the US pours billions into Asia to guard against North Korea and China should not these countries ban together and work on a strategy other than “let the US do it’?

When at what point does the American public realize just how stretched our forces and resources have become….after all most of our energy is going to Ukraine and our desire to confront Russia.

The words in Article 5 of the Charter reads thusly…..

The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.

An attack on a European or North America…..now what part of Asia falls in either of those categories?

Or is this just talk to hedge the vote to keep the cash rolling in for the defense industry and the Pentagon?

When will we ever learn?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

That China Thing

I have noticed that my posts on Ukraine are drawing very little attention……seems readers have lost all interest in the conflict while the US packs money into the country at an alarming rate.

The focus now is on China and Taiwan….gives the armchair analyst lots to write about (for now)….

For a couple of years now we have been told that China was on the move and becoming a major player in the Pacific……it has been sold as important so much so that Pelosi had to go to Asia and Taiwan especially to illustrate the US commitment to the region.

Pelosi’s most controversial visit is of course with Taiwan…..and she has an explanation (none of which is valid in my opinion)…..

Just minutes after Nancy Pelosi touched down in Taiwan, a piece she wrote for the Washington Post went live. Titled “Why I’m leading a congressional delegation to Taiwan,” Pelosi quite simply explains that very thing. Some key lines:

  • “In the face of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) accelerating aggression, our congressional delegation’s visit should be seen as an unequivocal statement that America stands with Taiwan, our democratic partner, as it defends itself and its freedom.”
  • “Our visit—one of several congressional delegations to the island—in no way contradicts the long-standing one-China policy [which recognizes, but does not endorse, China’s position that Taiwan is its territory], guided by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, the US-China Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances. The United States continues to oppose unilateral efforts to change the status quo.”

“America’s solidarity with Taiwan is more important today than ever—not only to the 23 million people of the island but also to millions of others oppressed and menaced by the PRC [People’s Republic of China].”

“We take this trip at a time when the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy. As Russia wages its premeditated, illegal war against Ukraine, killing thousands of innocents—even children—it is essential that America and our allies make clear that we never give in to autocrats.”

AS if on cue China responds to Pelosi…..

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement of its own upon Pelosi’s arrival in Taiwan. It reads in part: “Congress, as a part of the US Government, is inherently obliged to strictly observe the one-China policy of the US Government and refrain from having any official exchanges with China’s Taiwan region. China is all along opposed to the visit to Taiwan by US congressional members, and the US executive branch has the responsibility to stop such visit. Since Speaker Pelosi is the incumbent leader of the US Congress, her visit to and activities in Taiwan, in whatever form and for whatever reason, is a major political provocation.”

As for what the White House is saying, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told CNN Pelosi’s visit “is completely consistent with American policy. No change to our One China policy … There should be no reason for them to use this visit as some sort of a pretext for any kind of action that would escalate tensions.”

China reactions……

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the announcements from China were “unfortunately right in line with what we had anticipated,” the Washington Post reports. Kirby said there is no reason for “Beijing to turn this visit, which is consistent with long-standing US policy, into some sort of crisis, or use it as a pretext to increase aggressiveness and military activity in or around the Taiwan Strait.” He added: “We are prepared to manage what Beijing chooses to do. At the same time, we will not engage in saber-rattling.”

Analysts say that while the exercises will temporarily block some Taiwanese ports, China appears to be planning a show of strength but not an invasion of the island, reports the New York Times. But with tensions high, there is a chance that an accidental encounter between the Chinese and Taiwanese militaries that could spark a conflict. In a fiery editorial, the state-run Global Times said “forces like Pelosi” could not stop “full reunification” of the mainland and Taiwan—and she should pay a price for the “reckless” visit. “We should make people like Pelosi understand that Taiwan is not a place where they can visit at will,” the editorial said.

Even the people of Taiwan is not thrilled about Pelosi’s visit……

Many of the island’s 23.5 million people, said Yang, “are saying that she is causing trouble” while many more “do not care much about it.” They were inclined to shrug it off while obsessed with “domestic issues that are much bigger and attracting more attention than Pelosi’s visit.”

With Pelosi now firmly on the disputed Chinese territory, the ball is in China’s court to fire back. There was no doubt her visit would be filled with nothing but upbeat statements and expressions of friendship, but all the happy talk isn’t likely to convince a lot of people on Taiwan that her presence is an unmixed blessing.

This mash-up is starting to look like provocation to me.

Taiwan is a convenient spot to make a stand….if not for Taiwan where would it be?

Nothing more than a simple way to keep cash flowing from treasury to the defense industry.

Once this situation is lost in the headlines….where will we be sending our cash?

Could all this just be a fake?

From the front pages of The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, the Economist, to The New York Times’ Best Sellers List; from CNN and MSNBC to FOX and NEWSMAX; from think tanks to Pentagon planners, congressional testimonies and White House statements: CHINA! So singularly focused and omnipresent has the narrative of the China Threat become, one can be forgiven for forgetting that China is in fact a middle income country of modest capabilities and with no stated intention of doing any harm to Americans or the United States. Further, that China is not bent on world domination; and further still, as shall be clearly demonstrated, even if it secretly were there is a negligible chance of that coming to pass whatever Beijing’s efforts.

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-fake-china-threat-and-its-very-real-danger/

Just a thought.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Why Is NATO Involved?

It is no secret that I am no fan of NATO…..its time has passed…..now it is nothing but a sponge that sucks in taxpayer dollars.

NATO stands for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization…..The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an alliance of 30 countries that border the North Atlantic Ocean.1 The Alliance includes the United States, most European Union members, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Turkey.

NATO’s mission is to protect the freedom of its members. Its targets include weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, and cyber-attacks.

If this is for the protection of members then why are they trying to insert themselves in the Far East…there are NO members in that region.

I asked this question because of something I read…..

An article appeared on the website of the Atlantic Council on March 26 entitled Opportunity knocks for NATO and its partners in the Asia-Pacific, which elaborates plans for continuing and qualitatively upgrading the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s steady but largely unnoticed penetration of that region through military partnerships, port visits and exercises with NATO naval groups and the establishment of Asia-Pacific nations’ liaison offices at NATO Headquarters in Brussels among other measures. It came as it did immediately after the recent two-day foreign ministers meeting at NATO Headquarters before and after which NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Anthony Blinken unrelentingly thundered against China and Russia, with Blinken casting them into the same category with Iran and North Korea as threats not only to the Asia-Pacific region where they’re situated but to the entire world.

The Atlantic Council, which is sixty years old this year, is considered to be the world’s preeminent pro-NATO think tank, one which has spawned dozens of mirror organizations in the post-Cold War period, especially in Eastern European nations and former Soviet republics where they have been instrumental in lobbying, almost always successfully, for their host countries’ NATO membership. Despite the Atlantic Council’s name, it has, reflecting and keeping pace with NATO itself, adopted an international purview and mandate over the past thirty years. It now has five regional bureaus: Europe and Eurasia, Americas, Africa, Indo-Pacific and Middle East. The term Europe and Eurasia would not have been employed during the Cold War when the NATO and transatlantic community were understood to be limited to North America and Europe. Similarly, the term Indo-Pacific has recently come to replace Asia-Pacific, as in the Pentagon three years ago changing the name of its largest geographical unified combatant command from Pacific Command to Indo-Pacific Command.

Upcoming NATO Summit and the Great Game for the Asia-Pacific

I do not think that NATO should have any involvement in the Far East…..that should be up to the countries that feel the threat from China….not to have the US do it for them.

The US is getting ass deep in the Indo-Pacific thing…..so deep that the Pentagon has requested a $27 billion increase to their already bloated budget to deal with the Pacific region…..

The Pentagon recently asked Congress for an astronomical $27 billion budget increase to support a massive military buildup in Asia  as part of its new Indo-Pacific plan, which calls for a substantially more aggressive military stance against China.

With the US already ranking first in military spending worldwide and holding more than 290 military bases in the Asia-Pacific region alone, this aggressive buildup is being proposed at the most financially precarious moment in US history. According to the Congressional Budget Office report released this month, federal debt is projected to reach 102% of GDP by the end of 2021 before surpassing its historical high of 107% in 2031 and going on to nearly double to 202% by 2051. According to Doug Bandow, “Uncle Sam is headed toward insolvency.”

How can the Biden administration sell such an expensive foreign policy proposal to the American public in these economically depressed times? By publicly stoking moral outrage and militarism in the US–as well as throughout the Asia-Pacific region–in the name of launching a crusade ostensibly in defense of human rights. This strategy was on full display when Secretary of State Blinken echoed bipartisan political rhetoric about the “Chinese threat” during his visit to Asia last week. In a stream of condescending self-righteousness, he unleashed a deluge of recrimination against China and North Korea while pontificating on American exceptionalism.

The Real Danger of the Pentagon’s New Indo-Pacific Plan 

Once again the M-IC is pushing the US foreign policy into a new expensive conflict that we cannot afford.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

US Vs North Korea

Four years ago when the other guy was president….the situation with North Korea was all rain bows and lollipops….hugs and love letters….and now those of fantasy are gone.

Since Biden has been elected president….the chest thumping and rhetoric has changed…..but not the tactics.

Since Biden became president he has tried to take a hard line with North Korea…..to which a response has been issued by Kim’s sister…..

For the first time, a high-level regime official in North Korea has addressed remarks directly to President Biden. The warning message took issue with the US and South Korea’s joint military drills, which began March 8, the Japan Times reports. “We take this opportunity to warn the new US administration trying hard to give off (a gunpowder) smell in our land,” Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, said. “If it wants to sleep in peace for (the) coming four years, it had better refrain from causing a stink at its first step.” Pyongyang says the drills are “rehearsal for invasion,” but the US and South Korea say the drills, which were scaled down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, are “defensive” in nature and don’t include field training.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made their first trip abroad, discussing North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs during talks in Tokyo and planning for similar discussions Wednesday in South Korea. The US continues to await a response from North Korea after weeks of attempts at making diplomatic contact, the BBC reports. The Biden administration continues to review former President Trump’s North Korea policy, and plans to unveil its policy in the coming weeks, a senior State Department official tells CNN.

The US decided to answer with strong statements….

North Korea conceded Thursday that the US had attempted to establish contact between the two governments. The Biden administration sent emails and tried several ways to deliver telephone messages, even involving a third country. But the Americans’ effort was nothing but a “cheap trick,” a foreign ministry official said, to buy time while the US tried to sway public opinion. “What has been heard from the US since the emergence of the new regime is only lunatic theory of ‘threat from North Korea’ and groundless rhetoric about “complete denuclearization,'” Choe Son Hui said. She also criticized the US for keeping sanctions against her country, Reuters reports, and for conducting military drills with South Korea.

“We don’t think there is need to respond to the US delaying-time trick again,” Choe said in a statement, per the AP. “We have already declared our stand that no US contact and dialogue of any kind can be possible unless the US rolls back its hostile policy toward” North Korea. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are in South Korea, where Blinken told Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong the US will work with his nation and other allies to get North Korea to denuclearize. It’s the first time the US secretaries of state and defense have met with their South Korean equivalents in five years. Blinken and Austin had similar talks in Japan before traveling to Seoul.

Now the Pentagon has joined the chest thumping…..

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned Thursday that American forces are ready to “fight tonight,” in response to North Korea slamming drills resuming between the US and South Korea.

The US and South Korean forces have resumed military drills after pausing the exercises more than a year ago over coronavirus concerns.

“Our force remains ready to ‘fight tonight,’ and we continue to make progress toward the eventual transition of wartime Operational Control to a [Republic of Korea]-commanded, future Combined Forces Command,” Austin said.

(nypost.com)

Tit for tat rhetoric…..chest thumping accomplishes nothing…..

Stop the war cries and let diplomacy step in.

Diplomacy….that means let South Korea take the lead and we need to advise and stand back…..

The U.S. and South Korea have reached two agreements about the near-term future of the alliance, the Biden administration announced before the recent meeting in Seoul. First, the two governments worked out a new cost-sharing arrangement for the extensive U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula. And second, Washington and Seoul assented to suspend many of their annual joint military drills.

The latter is a smart move. It could well lower tensions and make space for useful diplomacy with North Korea, which regards the drills as practice for invasion and often responds with its own provocations in turn. The value of the cost-sharing arrangement is more difficult to assess. On the one hand, its settlement may allow more important diplomatic matters to move to the forefront in the relationship, which is to the good. But this deal also represents a recommitment to counterproductive U.S. dominance of inter-Korean relations, which serves neither U.S. interests nor the cause of peace.

Time For South Korea to Take the Lead on North Korea

Since South Korea has the most to lose and/or gain….they should take the lead on any negotiations.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Biden And North Korea

North Korea….remember them?

We have seen just how impotent the Trump policies have been in the curtailing of NK’s nuclear ambitions.

Well we have a new president and he has his finger on foreign policy….or so we are told….

What is Biden’s thoughts?

Look for familiar names from the presidency of Barack Obama to deal with North Korea after the inauguration of Joseph Biden as president on Jan. 20. Biden, having served as vice president for two terms under Obama, knows these old-timers well and may be inclined to name some of them to influential positions in hope, finally, of bringing North Korea to terms on its nuclear program.

The chances of Kim Jong-un saying, “right, we agree, and we’re giving up our nukes and missiles and the facilities for making them” range from nil to zero, but Christopher Hill, who led the Americans in failed six-party talks on North Korea’s nukes and then in frustrating negotiations with North Korea’s Kim Gye-gwan, never loses hope. In a Biden presidency, he said in a recent panel discussion, “There will be a little more focus on the substance of engagement and why we are willing to engage.”

…

…Biden’s “first order of business is going to be to fix the alliances.” No, he said, “it’s not just NATO,” the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that formed the bulwark of allied defenses against the old Soviet Union in the Cold War era and now faces Russia, whose president, Vladimir Putin, definitely would prefer Trump. For nearly four years, Trump did his best to undermine NATO, blasting its members for not contributing, cutting back on U.S. forces and, disgracefully, trying to finesse a trade-off with Ukraine on military assistance against Russia in return for Ukraine digging up dirt on Biden’s son, Hunter. 

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2020/11/353_299127.html

New president…will US troops stay in South Korea?  Will Kim remain the social outcast or will a new day dawn in US/NK relations?

It will be interesting to see just in what direction the policies involving the Korean Peninsula will travel.

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

It’s North Korea Again

We have not had much news abut North Korea in the last few months…all the air in reporting has been sucked out by the pandemic and the election…..so it falls on the Old Professor to bring you the news the MSM does not feel you should know.

The nuclear powers have been warned!

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned Saturday that his country would “fully mobilize” its nuclear force if threatened as he took center stage at a military parade in which the country unveiled what appeared to be a new intercontinental ballistic missile and other additions to its growing weapons arsenal, the AP reports. Kim, however, avoided direct criticism of Washington during the event, which celebrated the 75th anniversary of the country’s ruling party and took place less than four weeks before the US presidential election. Instead, he focused on a domestic message urging his people to remain firm in the face of “tremendous challenges” posed by the coronavirus pandemic and crippling US-led sanctions over his nuclear program.

Kim described the North’s continuing efforts to develop its nuclear deterrent as necessary for its defense and said it wasn’t targeting any specific country with its military force. But “if any force harms the safety of our nation, we will fully mobilize the strongest offensive might in a pre-emptive manner to punish them,” he said. Kim’s speech was punctuated by thousands of goose-stepping troops, tanks, armored vehicles, rocket launchers, and a broad range of ballistic missiles rolled out in Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square. The weapons included what was possibly the North’s biggest-yet ICBM, which was mounted on an 11-axle launch vehicle that was also seen for the first time. The North also displayed a variety of solid-fuel weapon systems that highlighted how the North has expanded its military capabilities.

That huge rocket could be something new…..

We don’t have a name or specifications, just photos from the parade. A lot of the crowd that usually frets about North Korea’s weapons noted this to be the biggest one we saw, and seem to be drawing the conclusion that must mean it’s the most powerful and most dangerous.

Which is just a guess. Size doesn’t dictate power or level of advancement for an ICBM, and if anything this missile is just a huge version of existing designs. Presumably it will go farther because it’s got room for all that fuel, but the ICBM is still just delivering a warhead if it is used.

Since North Korea never tested such a missile, or even bragged about having it, it’s also possible that the point of this big, noticeable design was to be big and noticeable at a parade, and one for an important anniversary.

(antiwar.com)

North Korea and China have developed a more intense cooperation….

In a congratulatory message to Kim Jong Un for the founding anniversary of North Korea’s ruling party, Chinese President Xi Jinping said he intends to deepen relations with Pyongyang, North Korean state media reported on Saturday.

“We have an intent to successfully defend, consolidate and develop the China-Korea relations together with Korean comrades and propel the long-lasting and stable development of the socialist cause of the two countries,” North Korean state news agency KCNA quoted Xi as saying.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-northkorea-missiles-china/chinas-xi-says-intends-to-deepen-relations-with-north-korea-kcna-idUKKBN26U2K2

Yet another front for the US and China to stand-off on.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Asian NATO

Looks like the US is getting more worried about China becoming aggressive….but why?

China is accomplishing a lot by diplomacy and agreements than by military intervention….at least for now.

Looks like the Trump boyz are thinking about another use for the US military beyond their missions in the Middle East…..

This is a wet dream for Neocons after their wars are trying to wind down by Trump just before an election.

There’s a general consensus in Washington that Beijing is the number one threat to US global hegemony. This has led some administration officials to consider forming a NATO type alliance in Asia to counter a rising China.

US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun recently suggested that the informal partnership between the US, Australia, Japan, and India could be the beginning of a NATO-style alliance in the Indo-Pacific.

The four countries, known as the Quad, already regularly hold military drills together in the Pacific. On August 31st, Biegun spoke at the US-India strategic dialogue and discussed the possibility of forming such an alliance with the Quad.

“It is a reality that the Indo-Pacific region is actually lacking in strong multilateral structures. They don’t have anything of the fortitude of NATO or the European Union,” Biegun said. “There is certainly an invitation there at some point to formalize a structure like this.”

On Friday, senior officials from the Quad held a virtual meeting, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Japan’s newly appointed Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs released a statement on the Quad meeting. “The officials reaffirmed their commitment towards a free, open, prosperous and inclusive Indo-Pacific region based on shared values and principles and respect for international law,” the statement said.

(antiwar.com)

First, I thought Japan could use its military only in a defensive mode since 1945….could this violate some international ruling?

Second, this idea was floated by a Dem representative, Moulton back in 2019…..but it was called a Pacific NATO…….so it is not an original idea for the Trump lackeys…..

You guessed it…..I wrote about it at the time……https://lobotero.com/2019/03/07/a-pacific-nato/

An Asia NATO would fly in the face of another agreement of Asian countries…..ASEAN……whose desires is for diplomatic and a renunciation of violence…

In their relations with one another, the ASEAN Member States have adopted the following fundamental principles, as contained in the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) of 1976:

  1. Mutual respect for the independence, sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity, and national identity of all nations;
  2. The right of every State to lead its national existence free from external interference, subversion or coercion;
  3. Non-interference in the internal affairs of one another;
  4. Settlement of differences or disputes by peaceful manner;
  5. Renunciation of the threat or use of force; and
  6. Effective cooperation among themselves.

Not something NATO is noted for….a peaceful settlement of disputes.

To me this smells like an idea the M-IC came up with incase they lose the wars profits from Middle East.

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Will There Be An “Asian Century”?

I have seen this question asked on several occasions…..first it was the rise of Japan and their buying up America….and now the same question only more about China…..

From time to time I get to see some amazing research completed by grad students from around the world…..

this one is especially interesting especially to anyone that is worried about the “World Order”…..

Asia has been increasing its influence in the world, largely, because of China’s exceptional economic growth. A creative study of the global economy’s center of gravity, which indicates the average location of economic activity across geographies, showcases that though, in 1980, that center of gravity was the mid-Atlantic, by 2008, it had moved to the east of Helsinki, and, by 2050, it is predicted to be located between India and China (Quah, 2011). This favorable economic prediction, combined with the arguable decline of the West, is propelling quite a few international relations scholars into advancing the argument that we are entering an “Asian Century”. Some of them go so far as to contend that China will rule the world. However, a strong economy is just one of the requisites for the “Century.” Luce (1941), who coined the term “American Century,” laid out the important factors needed to realize the American Century: the American economy, American ideals, and responsibility for leading the entire world. In addition to those three factors, most importantly, structural advantages within the US-led liberal international order enabled the American Century. Even if China had a preponderance of the total economic size over the US in the future, China could not create a China-led international order in which China and other states enjoy economic, political, and social prosperity due to China’s intrinsic political issues and external factors.

Are We Entering an “Asian Century?”: The Possibility of a New International Order

We can bitch about the things that China is doing….but we need to understand the policies behind the movement……without understanding then basically all you are doing is bitching for the sake of bitching.

For instance….china’s expansion into the African continent…….why is it important?

For a generation, China has expanded its economic outreach to the Middle East but has largely remained diplomatically neutral and militarily absent. Beijing, for example, maintains cordial diplomatic relations with Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. It often abstained on contentious UN Security Council resolution. And while Chinese Navy ships do make occasional port calls in the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, but China’s non-combatant evacuation operation from Libya at the beginning of that country’s civil war was far less coordinated and effective than Chinese authorities claimed.

President Xi Jingping’s assertiveness may not be limited to China’ periphery, in Hong Kong, the South China Sea, and Ladakh. China, for example, not only established a military base in Djibouti within miles of the U.S. presence, but also has begun to interfere with U.S. pilots in the region.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/middle-east-watch/chinas-next-military-move-base-persian-gulf-164184

Is this a hostile move?  Or could it be a defensive one to protect their assets in Africa?

Any thoughts?

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Politics Of Covid-19

We here in the US have been scrambling to decide just who is telling the truth about this virus……the president or the health professionals.

I know who I believe but that is just me.

I read a piece written by a South Korean professor that sheds some light on the situation as it pertains to politics.

The author is a political science and international relations professor at Seoul National University.

I am teaching my political theory course remotely this semester due to the new coronavirus outbreak. For the midterms, I told my students to submit essays discussing “the politics of Covid-19.” Using the basic concepts of politics they will learn in the first half of the course, my students will analyze the political situation surrounding the Covid-19 crisis. For reference, I uploaded about 50 news articles — including editorials and columns I found in the local and foreign press — onto our online bulletin board. The news clips have provocative headlines such as “corona-politics,” “self-serving politics,” “the political offensive of a contagion” and “the government’s self-praise.”


In real life, politics is not so negative. From a realist point of view, politics is about clashing with one another over self interest and competing to take and maintain their power. The American political scientist Harold Lasswell famously defined politics as a science of “who gets what, when and how.” When we look up the word “political” in the dictionary, we come across such words like “crafty” and “scheming.” That is what we mean when we say someone is “too political.”

Covid-19 has definitely laid bare the dark side of politics. With less than a month to go until the April 15 parliamentary elections, we see political groups bashing and fighting against one another to pursue their factional interests and gain power. Attention from the media tends to amplify such political strife, and they demonstrated conflicting views on whether the Korean government is doing a good job in tackling the virus. In that sense, media outlets are also engaged in the politics of the coronavirus. The Journalists Association of Korea even published an official column criticizing a conservative newspaper’s “political and biased” news coverage.

http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx

Fascinating look……but all that aside the South Korean model of dealing with this virus should be held up as the only way to deal with it.

Have not hears this before now?

Then read and then tell me who has a better model….that idiot in the White House or South Korea?

“Test, test, test,” World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus implored countries fighting the novel coronavirus at a press conference on March 16. “You cannot fight this fire blindfolded.” The UK seems finally to have heeded this advice, announcing plans on March 19 to up test for Covid-19 to 25,000 every day.

As of March 20, the UK had only tested 64,621 people – more than any other European country apart from Italy but still far below the level needed to truly track the extent of the outbreak. But if the UK needs a role model for implementing these tests, it could do worse than look towards South Korea.

…

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would quickly announce that 9,300 people attended the two Shincheonji church services alongside patient 31 and 1,200 were now complaining of flu-like symptoms. Hundreds would test positive in the coming days. During a 10-day period in late February, cases leapt above 5,000.

Yet South Korea, where the outbreak total stands, as of March 19, at 8,652 cases and 94 deaths, now has a case rate in relative decline. Just 93 new cases were reported on March 18 (though numbers rose again on 19, to 152.) During the worst periods of February, Korean officials were recording more than 900 a day.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/south-korea-coronavirus

Guess what?  Testing is the key….now someone needs to whisper that in the ear of Donald the Orange.

Learn Stuff!

Be Well!  Be Safe!

I Read, I Write, you know

“lego ergo scribo”