Biden’s massive military aid package neglects the real strategic threat: China

So what are you suggesting? That we encourage Taiwan to declare independence, immediately recognize their independence, pressure our allies to do so as well, and go from the risk of great power war to the guarantee of it?

 

Or maybe we should just stick to our 1972 position and not make an enemy of China just because we are a bored and flailing country lacking purpose beyond keeping the national security state going

 

Don't know ... we have backed ourselves into a stupid position where our reasons for trying to protect Taiwan don't even make logical sense given that we acknowledge they are part of China... and we got here because we are afraid of upsetting China and had no backbone in 1972 ... I mean, what we have gotten ourselves into would be like China threatening war with USA because they want to pry Puerto Rico away from the USA and make them their ally ...

 

Translated: All we have to do is give Putin everything he wants and he pinky swear won't break his promises like he did when he went into Ukraine. Also, we should align the USA with Russia's priorities and not with the defense of our long time allies in Europe.

Ronald Reagan is spinning in his grave like a top thanks to the modern Russia-compromised GOP.

 

I thought Nixon going to China was viewed as the textbook case of "realpolitik" / Kissinger's genius, etc

 

If Reagan is experiencing eternal torment, that is a positive thing, so I'm a little confused about this claim

 

Well, I appreciate you conceding that there’s no easy answer to the problem, but I do challenge the notion that our current position is stupid. One of the characteristics of great power competition is that you have to carefully navigate between two unacceptable extremes. In this case, one extreme is general war, which we obviously don’t want. And the other is China taking Taiwan by force of arms, for which there are several realist and liberal reasons that such a situation would be just as unacceptable. Our policy, however imperfect, is a way to navigate those extremes. Of course, I’m interested in any alternatives that similarly allow us to do so in a better way.

 

Although it should be rather obvious the rejection of aid to Ukraine would have sent the message to Xi Jinping that the United States is not a trusted ally and could end up greenlighting a future Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

 

apparently it’s not obvious to like half the country.

 

I think it's obvious, but politics are more important

 

I'm not sure a lot of people understand that most of this money for the Ukraine War is going towards American made hardware made in our factories by Americans which helps our economy.

 

According to maga world the greatest threat to the USA is the dem party and anyone who fails to properly and enthusiastically kiss the orange god's ass.

 

That is what the regular $800 billion per year is for... good lord. So ridicules.

 

One way the Biden administration has confronted China is by the trilateral agreement with S. Korea, Japan and the US signed in 2023. In addition to greater coordination on commerce and security, it directly confronts China's aggressive moves in the Pacific. Building alliances like this strengthens each nation. This is something that Trump's administration never seemed to embrace, that having more allies is an effective deterrent to Russian and China.

 

Considering you are going in the opposite direction of American strategic foreign policy since 1944, how about linking where you are getting these ideas from?

 

A couple of comments. With respect to Ukraine the only way Russia would want to negotiate with the US would be if we were willing concede Russian dominion over large parts of the Ukraine the way Neville Chamberlain conceded German control over the Sudetenland following Hitler's invasion especially since the rationale for what Germany did over 80 years ago and what Putin has done bear a striking similarity. Hitler rationalized the invasion on the basis that the Sudetenland was inhabited by ethnic Germans; Similarly Putin's rationale was that the Donbas and Crimea are inhabited by ethnic Russians and as such should be part of Russia and I would add that Putin has made no attempt to cover up his ultimate goal of reincorporating Ukraine in its entirety into Russia much the way that Ukraine was an integral part of Russia under the Czars and the Soviet Union.

As far as the expansion of NATO is concerned, it wasn't the result of an expansionist policy by the US and the Western European members of the NATO, it was the result of fear on the part of independent countries that were either dominated or part of the Soviet Union and feared a potentially aggressive Russia and as it turns out they were correct.

 

True, but that’s more of an ancillary benefit than a reason to support this war. The main questions at issue are: is it a just cause, does it affect the national security of the United States, and is there a fair chance of success? Now I personally believe the answer to all three is an unqualified yes. So I am as perplexed with some on the right who would subordinate those matters just to hang another loss on Biden as I am with the left who think what we’re doing is good enough as long as we mean well, regardless of what is actually necessary.

 

You may have noticed this thing self described “conservatives” do. They just flip flop whenever it’s convenient to an argument. No logic. No internal consistency. Just whatever fits the argument in that moment.

Last week it was “can’t pass any of that foreign aid, ‘Murica first”

This week, “what about that puny Taiwan aid, we are soooooo weak on China”.