Unfortunately the only 'authority' quoted in this article is the eccentric Ted Galen Carpenter who with Earl Ravenal at CATO Institute have spent the better part of 30 years proposing neo-isolationist solutions to virtually any question involving US presence anywhere in the world. While Carpenter has written incisive critiques of the unfitness of the UN and the pointlessness and strategic incoherence of the NATO-Serb war he in general has a kneejerk 'the US has no compelling interest in (fill in the blank)' response to any potential conflict.
In the case of Taiwan he is dead wrong. Forcible reunification with the mainland would be a disaster for the US unless we are planning to move our defense perimeter back to the Marianas as a preliminary to eventually making the Hawaii-Alaska line our maritime frontier in the Pacific. Not emphatically letting the PRC know that an attack on Taiwan would be considered threating a vital national interest is also folly. Ambiguity with Iraq is what set off the train of events leading to the first Gulf War and our direct involvement there today.
If the US considers having a Far Eastern defense perimeter as one of its vital interest our position on Taiwan should be unambiguously clear. Taiwan is, along with Okinawa, and the US-Japan Alliance one of the three keystones to US containment of China. Its loss will unhinge that policy and lead to a probable Japanes-Chinese detente and the end effectively if not formally of the US defense relationship with Japan. The next place where the US has a firm presence is Guam and the North Marianas. Chinese unhinging of the Japan-Taiwan position would lead to intense Chinese diplomatic/subversive activities to agitate the Guamanians and to woo the small island republics in that region to align with China.
Thank you so much wombat, I didn't know about this Ted Galen Carpenter and his knee-jerk isolationism, you have furthered my education. It is truly astonishing that there are otherwise educated people who still think we can pull up the drawbridge, retreat behind a mythical "Fortress America" and thumb our noses at the world.
I guess it is of a piece with those folks who like to say: "the hell with what they do in Washington, if they come for my [insert here] I'll let 'em have it!." By the time the enemy is at your doostep, it is way too late to do anything.