|
|
The U.S. is not at war with China, but you’d never know it by listening to politicians in Washington.
The Financial Times reported that the U.S. Air Force is considering rotating two squadrons of F-15 Eagles on the island with F-22 stealth fighters on a short-term basis. The concern out of Washington is that the temporary removal of these fighters could send the wrong signal to China amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R.Fla., and Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., sent Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin a frantic letter saying the move could lead to a “tangible reduction in American forward combat power in the Indo-Pacific.”
They blamed the Biden administration of “lowering the bar for aggression and demonstrating a continuing mismatch between the Biden Administration’s talking points on the Indo-Pacific and America’s actual commitments in the region.”
Defense News, citing an unnamed source, said the rotational force is seen as a short-term solution as older fighters are retired. The base currently holds at least 48 of these fighters, including some pushing 40 years old. These jets will eventually be replaced by F-15EX fighters.
TRENDPOST: (See “U.S. RAMPS UP TENSION WITH CHINA. PELOSI A FRONT FOR THE WAR MACHINE AND WHITEHOUSE,” and “BIDEN SAYS U.S. WILL FIGHT CHINA IF IT INVADES TAIWAN, BUT WHITE HOUSE FLACKS QUICKLY BACKTRACKS.”)
TREND FORECAST: Despite these grandstanding visits and vows of support, we forecast that just as Beijing has clamped down on Hong Kong protests and taken full control, so, too, will they take control of Taiwan when they are ready.
Despite condemnations when they do so, there will be no military forces from other nations that will challenge Communist China’s military might. Indeed, America, with the largest military in the world, has not won a war since World War II and cannot even win against third-world nations, such as Afghanistan, after invading that nation some 20 years ago.
The Ukraine invasion showed that the U.S. is willing to offer support by exporting military equipment and level sanctions, but it does not want to fight China in a war that it would lose.
We have noted several times where U.S. President Joe Biden said American troops would spring to the defense of the island, but that will not happen. Washington would do all it can to form a Pacific NATO, like it is doing now, and provide Taiwan with more weapons than they have soldiers to fire them.
The U.S. seems intent on antagonizing China with its presence in the region. The U.S. Air Force released a statement on Friday titled, “F-22As Bring Air Dominance to Kadena in Preparation for Phased F-15C/D Withdrawal.”
The statement read, “For decades, Kadena Air Base has served as the keystone of the Pacific. The base’s strategic position makes it a vital staging location for forces to deter regional adversaries and project U.S. airpower throughout the Indo-Pacific.”
About a dozen F-15 jets will return to the U.S. in the next few weeks and the same number of F-22 fighters will be sent over to the base.
Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki, whose father was an American Marine, told Roll Call last month that the island’s 1.4 million people are anxious over the tensions in the region. The report said at the end of WWII, about 100,000 people were killed on the island in fighting or were ordered to kill themselves by the Japanese imperial military rather than surrender to conquering American troops.
The U.S. currently occupies 8 percent of Okinawan land, the report said.