The Pentagon is sending warships to Taiwan but Joe’s not trying to start World War III or anything. He doesn’t have to try because bungling foreign policy comes so natural to him. Or, his handlers. It’s been a busy Monday for Joe. He watched as his WhatsApp account melted down after Anonymous hacked Hunter’s iPhone backup. Then, he himself had a very public mental meltdown to spoil the preview party for the James Webb Space Telescope.
Taiwan has a target around it
Taiwan isn’t about to become a global battleground. We’re not going to war with China over Taiwan, the head of the U.S. Pacific Fleet insists. Only practicing for when we do “in the years ahead.” Isn’t that what Vladimir Putin said when he rolled all those tanks up to the Ukraine border?
Admiral Sam Paparo swears up and down that this “sprawling” Rim of the Pacific 2022 exercise “is not designed to counter or threaten China.” Even though it clearly threatens China.
Xi Jinping has already admitted that he’ll be capable of taking Taiwan “by force” in 2027, even though it already belongs to them as a territory. Admiral Paparo is ready to fight tomorrow’s war today.
RIMPAC, he explains, “was designed to bolster the international coalition’s proficiency in areas that would be applicable in the Taiwan 2027 scenario, including amphibious operations and long-range strikes.” You can never get too much target practice with live rounds. He wants you to think of it as more like a Nerf war.
They have some really cool gear to play with this year, he brags. They get to test how well their drones are at avoiding live anti-drone fire, while the soldiers get to test their skills at shooting down drones. It’s fun, too!
Taiwan appreciates their allies will be “a more distributed, more survivable, more lethal force that’s harder to target.”
distributed lethality concepts
The Admiral gets an edge in his voice when he talks about “gravitating towards distributed lethality types of concepts.” The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps are moving in that direction already.
“I do see a convergence, based on the changing character of warfare, in the sense that with the commoditization of precision strike technology and with the commoditization of sensors from the seabed to space, our allies and partners see that geography is no longer necessarily sanctuary and [they] must be smarter about maneuvering in such a way that places the fleets and the fleets’ capability in a position to be more mobile and [survivable].” In English that means you can’t hide from spies in the sky, even in the underbrush of Taiwan.
This little show of force which isn’t meant to annoy the Pooh Bear features “Twenty-six nations, 38 ships, four submarines, more than 170 aircraft and 25,000 personnel.” The fun and games are already underway and will continue until August 4. Uncle Sam wants Taiwan to feel safe, even if it makes the rest of the world have nuclear nightmares.
“Whether it is the threat posed by disasters, whether it is the threats posed by state actors, and whether it is amphibious operations or long-range precision strikes — it’s not a matter of focusing our operations in one area, one mission set,” he told Defense News. “It’s increasing our game across all of the mission sets.” That’s a message to Kim Jong Un and the Ayatollah with one swipe.
China has already been touchy about Taiwan. The United States is playing with fire, they say, by teasing the island territory with freedom they can’t deliver.
How would Joe Biden like it if the Chinese Navy were to sail into San Juan, Puerto Rico and start passing out commie literature and rocket launchers? Speaking of rocket launchers, since those stingers we promised Taiwan still haven’t got there, and the howitzers are on hold. Now might be a good time for Xi to just go ahead and send troops to get it over with.
