№ 685. NATO

NATO

№ 644. Geopolitics and Exit Strategies 3

"To provoke China into a military confrontation today is to trap it into an arena where the US is still superior. The American chess pieces of 800 overseas military bases, gunboat diplomacy in air, land, and sea, and military technology are more than 20 years ahead of China, and are further bolstered by the $850 billion proposed US defense budget for 2023. The US continues to surround China in the Indo-Pacific with bases, carrier fleets, and submarines bristling with conventional and nuclear missiles.

Fortunately, China does not want to fall into the trap that doomed the former Soviet Union in an arms race or commit the mistakes of past colonial big powers.

But this fierce geopolitical competition between the US and China inevitably involves the Philippines because of its geostrategic location. Will we continue to be a de facto US aircraft carrier and part of the US nuclear infrastructure? The Mutual Defense Treaty, the Visiting Forces Agreement, and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement make us part of the offensive island chain of encirclement against neighboring China. There is now an agreement with the US-firm Cerberus for it to take over Hanjin Shipyard at Subic that will allow the regular repair, refueling, and docking of the US Navy."

№ 536. Geopolitics and Exit Strategies 2

Empires wax and wane. Powers ebb and flow. Spheres of influence retreat and surge. Celestial bodies are born and die.

As it is with the universe, so it is with its subsets and elements.

 

Political Cartoons

№ 287. Winter is Coming

The Specter of the Dark Ages

№ 247. Urbi et Orbi

CNN reports about the Trump Phenomenon and this got me thinking.

The U.S., as the lone superpower, sets the agenda for the world. Like it or not, if Trump wrests his way to Washington DC, the ripples of his pompadour will be felt in this far corner of the world. Shouldn't we, at least, take notice and somehow be heard, as well?

Here's a shout out:

The U.S. President is, to be sure, the de facto leader of the world. That means Trump's policy will affect me--- an Asian, a non-citizen and leaps of miles across the Pacific lake (yes, it has shrunk). And I don't get to say or do anything?! There ought to be a law.

Urbi et Orbi