Posted on 03/30/2023 8:36:33 AM PDT by rktman
Biden is speaking loudly but carrying an ever smaller stick.
Over the past couple of years, Xi has been ratcheting up the pressure on Taiwan, and Biden has matched and raised his bet.
I have long been skeptical of the U.S.’ strategic ambiguity regarding Taiwan. Like it or not, Taiwan is now at the heart of global commerce, punching far above its weight class.
About 70% of microprocessors are made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), and while not all of them are manufactured on the island, the world economy would be crippled by its loss. Taiwan is at the heart of the high-tech economy upon which the world now depends, and that is one of the many reasons China wants to control it.
President Biden has, de facto, abandoned the decades-old policy of strategic ambiguity and declared that the US would defend the independence of the island from China, committing the US to war in the event of an attack. Taiwan, far more than Ukraine, is of vital strategic interest to us and it’s hard to fault him for buttressing deterrence.
Except it’s all talk. Biden is talking big but cutting the US Navy and strangling its budget. How, exactly, can we defend the country with an understrength Navy and a declining stockpile of ammunition? Every shipment to Ukraine that isn’t backfilled quickly diminishes our ability to actually defend the island.
Xi knows that. Biden claims that our support for Ukraine proves our commitment to our allies and will bolster deterrence. Perhaps so, except our actual military capabilities are shrinking by the day, and Biden is working to shrink them even faster.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
Perfect! I am stealing this for future Posts on other sites!
The defense budget only increased by 3% which, because of inflation, is a cut. All of the US military is being downsized. Biden wants the Navy ship count to fall well below 300.
All of that probably is in either Joe or Hunter’s contracts with Xi Jinping. And likely was part of the still-secret discussions Biden had with XI, last they visited.
Brothers.
+1
Benedict Biden’s ATF Form 4473 now has THREE options for the gun buyer’s sex! UNBELIEVABLE!
Just put “N/A”.
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