The Chinese will get around to you eventually and then you’ll wish you had friends.
Any relationship to the marcos’s of 30 years ago?
No country wants to be a staging post for warfare, but the Philippines would be the most logical choice were this to occur. Perhaps one of the outlying Phillippine islands in that region will suffice.
OSS had many contacts in China with the forces of Chiang Kai-shek, which existed because of the US Army's efforts to help the Chinese fight the Japanese during WWII. Claire Chennault started this, and a man named Desmond FitzGerald continued it after WWII ended.
Better a “staging post” than a battle front.
That’s okay, Ferdinand. They’ll just backstop out of GUAM for the heavies with weapons and then fly the tankers out of Kadena, Okinawa..... That’s what they did during Viet Nam.
I was at Kadena in 1971 right when they’d just pulled out a wing of B-52s used for bombing Viet Nam. The locals didn’t like all the bombs so they swapped the bombers for fully fuel-laden KC135s and ran the B-52s out of Guam (Operation Arc Light). They also used CCK Air Base in Taiwan
Guam’s too unstable, I guess.
I don’t think they had a vote on that in WWII.
Probably not in WWIII either...
The weak Phillipines can pretend that major powers will have zero to do with its future and its future security, but without the alliance with democracies, the U.S. and others, there are not and will not be security help for the Philippines, and it will come back to asking for the U.S. for help or succumbing to being subservient to China and being forced to allow Chinese military bases on Philippine Islands, to enable China to further bully democracies like Japan and South Korea.
It is no shame on current leaders to being a weak cuntry for reasons steeped in a long history (which cannot be undone overnight), but refusing to acknowlegde a bully is operating in your neck of the woods and further pretending that having no major allies will keep you out of harms way, is no less than sticking your head in the sand.
It will if we want it to be.
Then start learning Mandarin, Pinoy.
Reminds me of Belgium declaring "Belgium is not a road!" A couple of months later they said "and a very nice road too. Paved for easy marching."
You can’t have it both ways, Philippines. Either you want your economic and sovereignty protected, or you don’t.
For those who like to reject neocons or something, our massive naval base at Cam Ranh Bay in the South China Sea/ Vietnam would have continued to be an incredible asset in the coming conflict.
Isolationism has big consequences. That one was on the leftist democrats, but plenty here put Vietnam on their mistakes list.
It was a huge mistake, the part where we let N Vietnam win.
Hi.
In the Pacific AO the Phillpines would be the ideal place to counter the Chicoms. Naval base and airfield are within operational distance from China...and Taiwan. Or, there might be a better place...
Joe could go to the Vietnamese and ask for basing rights. That would be prime reali estate in a war with the CCP.
I crack me up.
5.56mm
The Filipinos already give us access to several bases. I can understand why they do not wish to be a full-blown staging area for the aggression of another country—especially with our current so-called leadership. It did not help them in the least to be a US territory during the last World War. As a country, they suffered terribly—arguably more than any other country. Old Manila and other cultural landmarks were obliterated. In a lot of ways they have never recovered. It looks to me like they’ve decided to decline to put a larger target from their backs and let the chips fall where they may.
“The Philippines ‘will not become a staging post’ for US-China conflict”
fine ... after china eats Taiwan, they’ll eat the Philippines next ... and after that, it’ll be a re-enactment of the WWII Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere, except china will be in charge instead of the japs ...
Ok, start brushing up on your Mandarin then, I guess.
Signs deals for 4 US bases, then says this. Probably trying to appease domestic opposition, but you can’t have it both ways. Marcos is almost as slimy as his dictator dad, and selected his predecessor’s daughter as his VP to get his support. Marcos, Aquino, Duterte and another Marcos, why are the Filipinos so horrible at picking presidents? I don’t think you can trust “Bongbong” as far as you can throw him. Just like Duterte before him, he will try to play both sides. This is where you need a strong POTUS, and we ain’t got that...
smart guy, unlike Zalenski