...initiated by President Trump - that's reason enough for this administration to disregard the request not to mention the $1 billion China "invested" with Hunter. (That $1 billion may be the best buy since the Dutch bought Manhattan for $24. )
Fourth paragraph is key. "Agreement initiated by President Trump". That means democrats have to vote against it since if Trump did it, it has to be bad.
This needs to be a separate piece of legislation and passed tomorrow if for no other reason to show how important those relationships are.
In the U.S. we stumble about with "whole of government" approaches to our problems in the world, creating a "feel good" environment about "unity of approach" despite the fact various parts of the government act in direct opposition to each other (State and DoD Foreign Military Sales approval exhibit A). Why that is remains a "mystery". A totalitarian government takes a "whole of nation" approach, and while ham-fisted and inefficient, the "get in line with the "unified approach or ELSE" (and everyone understands what the "ELSE" is) trends in the same direction. Pro tip: when corruption is embedded in your societal norms to the extent it is perceived as merely "a cost of doing business", you won't hesitate to use it openly and blatantly to achieve your national goals, especially if there is no Foreign Corrupts Practices Act (applied seldom and unevenly if it is) to keep things from being too obvious. The simple explanation is people are self interested and get bought. Why they get bought is often a lot more complex than money, and nowhere near as obvious. Toss in differences in timelines (dictatorships vs. election cycles) and you get effort applied for longer periods. Difficult to overcome that. As noted by Pete, see Dutch purchase of Manhattan...! (-;
Aviation Sceptic: I started noticing the "whole of government" language a few years ago, while reading various FedGov policy statements and pronouncements. A shorter way to say the same thing is "communism." The entirety of FedGov has been turned against us.
During my time in the swamp, I came across an interesting phenomenon. When some major policy document was issued with signatures from a variety of agencies there was pure joy in the atmosphere. The document was considered a success in and of itself - never mind if anything was actually accomplished. Great bullet on a FITREP not to mention an end of tour award.
Too true. In the legal world, the "process" of the litigation is "part of the punishment" (not always, but...). But that is usually intended to have a winner and loser. In the interagency, as you said, the "process" and the associated Tiger Team, OPT, working group, etc. was the desired end result. Which is why an awful lot of those things never get beyond .ppt deep or being used as a door stop if they ended up in hard copy and had enough "throw weight".
Ah yes. The sacred interagency process for which Lieutenant Colonel Vindman (and others) was willing to plunge the nation into a constitutional crisis.
Once again... take map from the eastern region of China to the western regions of the Pacific... rotate from north-south orientation to a west-east orientation and observe. CDR Sal has made this point more than a "few" times. Soft power is a real thing and neglecting Palau, the Solomon Islands and the rest of that region would be the equivalent of a self-inflicted wound and the clearest indication yet we are led by a bunch of self-serving amateurs in DC.
The Chicoms will achieve with soft power, assisted by DC incompetence, what the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces could not achieve with hard power: cutting our lines of maneuver and supply with Australia and Southeast Asia.
I haven't been to Palau since the mid 80's. Both it and Truk (Korror) were key installations and major battles during WWII. There is very little industry, and tourism diving the WWII wrecks is its main business, along with some agricultural products. Both of these republics were under US protection back in the 80's, and you didn't need a passport to travel there.
Sadly, we've let our vision slip, and ignore these valuable strategic allies. Unless we wish to lose a lot of Marines landing on Palau again, we need to ensure they remain in our sphere of influence.
For America, it's not great that there's no military relationship or infrastructure on Palau... but if we're lucky enough to avoid a war until my next vacation, boy, those wrecks sound appealing.
90% of my diving was on Guam, where there's a couple sunk WWII amphibious landing boats that are perfect for Scuba beginners.
Alas, I think I missed that dive—I was sharing a rental with another reservist, so every other weekend he got the car and I just walked to the beach that was the on base family activity spot. You know, the one creatively named “Family Beach.”
I bet sitting in the cockpit was the first thing you did, right? I know as soon as we got down to the wreck of the landing craft, we immediately stood up a helmsmen. Made sure everyone had a turn to take the wheel, and I swear to you the last man on watch turned towards where the ensign would have flown, then clicked his flippers together to come to attention and salute.
Never got to that one, but we snorkeled over to the sunken craft near the base of the long pier. After we'd been free diving down to look at her for about 15 minutes, we found our path back to the pier obstructed by a sizable swarm of little jellyfish. Dodging those little buggers was ... sporty.
Closest ive done was a lil snorkeling at Gitmo, but some WWII wreck diving is near the top of the bucket list and an almost daily daydream!! At my age and (lack of) diving skill, Id settle for wading out and touching Prinz Eugen LOL
If I was CNO or CINCPAC or COCOM, I'd push very hard to make Ulithi our forward anchorage.
I guarantee Palau's AToN program needs a firm guiding hand if any world power wants to safely bring warships through the channel west of Koror.
I was on BASSWOOD when we turned everything over to the Palauans in 1995, and their "dive team" (such as it was) occupied itself with spearfishing when its members should have been learning from our dive team how to maintain and position floating aids within 6 feet of their assigned positions.
If I was a carrier or amphib skipper, you couldn't pay me enough to risk my ship in a transit down that channel until either a USCG buoy tender or an ANT Team certified it as navigable.
God only knows how well or deeply it's dredged these days.
Concur. We're going to need to reinvest in all those places. Build storage and runways, deepen harbors, etc. Thanks for your voice of experience. 30 yr carrier Sailor here.
If the P-8 Poseidon's combat radius is indeed 1,383 miles (with 4 hours loiter time on station), then for your reference, here's that radius centered on Palau:
Allowed industrial espionage of US defense contractors and universities, this, depleting our stockpiles via Ukraine, and a host of other issues where the US is seemingly letting the PLA(N) run wild. Makes one wonder if our military is being hollowed out on purpose.
How long has it been since someone in Washington looked at a great big map? (Not one on an iPad or phone.) we have become provincial in the worst ways.
Cheryl: No one one in DC would know what he or she or zer was looking at. Knowledge and interest in geography and history have been "lost," on purpose.
From the Chinese point of view I find myself wondering how many conventional warheads I need on my SRBMs, IRBMs, and ICBMs to negate island chain installations which are fixed locations?
Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.(SunTzu, Ch 4.1-3,14-15)
When I was a Senior Midshipman at Boat School, we had a Foreign Affairs conference. I led the panel on "Use of Force." The guy running it pulled me aside and asked me to do one more thing. Escort Admiral Burke. He was initially just supposed to be in my panel one day. He ended up staying there all week. I escorted him around campus all week, but he knew the place better than I did.
I was in total awe of the hero of WWII and 2x CNO. A superb gentleman, and real leader. Amazing opportunity for a young officer.
Jim, Thank you for posting. I'm mixing a rum and water right now, as a tribute to Arleigh Burke, and to help dull the pain in my body. The most important lesson we can learn from him, from my admittedly limited perspective, is to spend as much time as the next generation will allow us, to share what little we have learned. The lessons are timeless, but they are perhaps best passed on by person-to-person contact.
Bless you, Jim! My pain is not at all significant in the history of humanity. With Medicare and Tricare for Life, and tax-free spirits at the Navy Exchange, (they never card me, my wife says they always know a "lifer") I have no regrets at all. I would do it all again if needed. Life is a bowl of cherries, let's just hope they don't break the bowl.
Jetcal1: It's really disgraceful, the way the US abandons places and people for whom Americans faught and died. While there may be cases where "we shouldn't have been there," Palau was not one of those cases.
President Whipps has more courage in his little finger than the entire latte-swilling State Department complement of "experts." I hope he doesn't experience CCP justice because you know they are taking notes
...initiated by President Trump - that's reason enough for this administration to disregard the request not to mention the $1 billion China "invested" with Hunter. (That $1 billion may be the best buy since the Dutch bought Manhattan for $24. )
Fourth paragraph is key. "Agreement initiated by President Trump". That means democrats have to vote against it since if Trump did it, it has to be bad.
This needs to be a separate piece of legislation and passed tomorrow if for no other reason to show how important those relationships are.
Not just Democrats, and concur, this should be a separate piece of legislation (as almost all legislation should be, but I digress).
In the U.S. we stumble about with "whole of government" approaches to our problems in the world, creating a "feel good" environment about "unity of approach" despite the fact various parts of the government act in direct opposition to each other (State and DoD Foreign Military Sales approval exhibit A). Why that is remains a "mystery". A totalitarian government takes a "whole of nation" approach, and while ham-fisted and inefficient, the "get in line with the "unified approach or ELSE" (and everyone understands what the "ELSE" is) trends in the same direction. Pro tip: when corruption is embedded in your societal norms to the extent it is perceived as merely "a cost of doing business", you won't hesitate to use it openly and blatantly to achieve your national goals, especially if there is no Foreign Corrupts Practices Act (applied seldom and unevenly if it is) to keep things from being too obvious. The simple explanation is people are self interested and get bought. Why they get bought is often a lot more complex than money, and nowhere near as obvious. Toss in differences in timelines (dictatorships vs. election cycles) and you get effort applied for longer periods. Difficult to overcome that. As noted by Pete, see Dutch purchase of Manhattan...! (-;
Aviation Sceptic: I started noticing the "whole of government" language a few years ago, while reading various FedGov policy statements and pronouncements. A shorter way to say the same thing is "communism." The entirety of FedGov has been turned against us.
They are just here to serve us. https://cdnmetv.metv.com/p7oTD-1696346435-4893-blog-to%20serve%20man%20christmas%20gifts.png
From each according to his ability, to each according to his need, Comrade. Off to the gulag with you.
I expect to be surrounded by the best of company.
During my time in the swamp, I came across an interesting phenomenon. When some major policy document was issued with signatures from a variety of agencies there was pure joy in the atmosphere. The document was considered a success in and of itself - never mind if anything was actually accomplished. Great bullet on a FITREP not to mention an end of tour award.
Too true. In the legal world, the "process" of the litigation is "part of the punishment" (not always, but...). But that is usually intended to have a winner and loser. In the interagency, as you said, the "process" and the associated Tiger Team, OPT, working group, etc. was the desired end result. Which is why an awful lot of those things never get beyond .ppt deep or being used as a door stop if they ended up in hard copy and had enough "throw weight".
Ah yes. The sacred interagency process for which Lieutenant Colonel Vindman (and others) was willing to plunge the nation into a constitutional crisis.
Once again... take map from the eastern region of China to the western regions of the Pacific... rotate from north-south orientation to a west-east orientation and observe. CDR Sal has made this point more than a "few" times. Soft power is a real thing and neglecting Palau, the Solomon Islands and the rest of that region would be the equivalent of a self-inflicted wound and the clearest indication yet we are led by a bunch of self-serving amateurs in DC.
Don't sell them short; they serve themselves professionally.
The Chicoms will achieve with soft power, assisted by DC incompetence, what the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces could not achieve with hard power: cutting our lines of maneuver and supply with Australia and Southeast Asia.
I haven't been to Palau since the mid 80's. Both it and Truk (Korror) were key installations and major battles during WWII. There is very little industry, and tourism diving the WWII wrecks is its main business, along with some agricultural products. Both of these republics were under US protection back in the 80's, and you didn't need a passport to travel there.
Sadly, we've let our vision slip, and ignore these valuable strategic allies. Unless we wish to lose a lot of Marines landing on Palau again, we need to ensure they remain in our sphere of influence.
For America, it's not great that there's no military relationship or infrastructure on Palau... but if we're lucky enough to avoid a war until my next vacation, boy, those wrecks sound appealing.
90% of my diving was on Guam, where there's a couple sunk WWII amphibious landing boats that are perfect for Scuba beginners.
Not to mention that sunken Zero floatplane about 60 feet down near the seaplane ramp. That's a fun one. I sat in the cockpit.
Alas, I think I missed that dive—I was sharing a rental with another reservist, so every other weekend he got the car and I just walked to the beach that was the on base family activity spot. You know, the one creatively named “Family Beach.”
I bet sitting in the cockpit was the first thing you did, right? I know as soon as we got down to the wreck of the landing craft, we immediately stood up a helmsmen. Made sure everyone had a turn to take the wheel, and I swear to you the last man on watch turned towards where the ensign would have flown, then clicked his flippers together to come to attention and salute.
Just did some dives in Kwajalein atoll. There's a PBM Mariner at 125 feet you can swim inside - very cool.
Never got to that one, but we snorkeled over to the sunken craft near the base of the long pier. After we'd been free diving down to look at her for about 15 minutes, we found our path back to the pier obstructed by a sizable swarm of little jellyfish. Dodging those little buggers was ... sporty.
Closest ive done was a lil snorkeling at Gitmo, but some WWII wreck diving is near the top of the bucket list and an almost daily daydream!! At my age and (lack of) diving skill, Id settle for wading out and touching Prinz Eugen LOL
I'm at about the same level of skill as you are, it sounds like. The historical wreck sites I hit on Guam were all great for beginners.
Heck, none of them were as challenging as the time I went diving with an airman and got to third base 50' down.
If I was CNO or CINCPAC or COCOM, I'd push very hard to make Ulithi our forward anchorage.
I guarantee Palau's AToN program needs a firm guiding hand if any world power wants to safely bring warships through the channel west of Koror.
I was on BASSWOOD when we turned everything over to the Palauans in 1995, and their "dive team" (such as it was) occupied itself with spearfishing when its members should have been learning from our dive team how to maintain and position floating aids within 6 feet of their assigned positions.
If I was a carrier or amphib skipper, you couldn't pay me enough to risk my ship in a transit down that channel until either a USCG buoy tender or an ANT Team certified it as navigable.
God only knows how well or deeply it's dredged these days.
Concur. We're going to need to reinvest in all those places. Build storage and runways, deepen harbors, etc. Thanks for your voice of experience. 30 yr carrier Sailor here.
If the P-8 Poseidon's combat radius is indeed 1,383 miles (with 4 hours loiter time on station), then for your reference, here's that radius centered on Palau:
http://tinyurl.com/P8CombatRadiusPalau
Mighty handy place to have in one's pocket, or to at least not have in your enemy's pocket.
Here's an identical red radius centered on Guam:
http://tinyurl.com/CombatRadiusP8PalauPlusGuam
We should all contemplate that in the Tree of Woe
Heard in James Earl Jones voice.
"Listen, Jack my boy..."
Allowed industrial espionage of US defense contractors and universities, this, depleting our stockpiles via Ukraine, and a host of other issues where the US is seemingly letting the PLA(N) run wild. Makes one wonder if our military is being hollowed out on purpose.
Adam Perry: You can stop wondering. The answer is "yes."
How long has it been since someone in Washington looked at a great big map? (Not one on an iPad or phone.) we have become provincial in the worst ways.
Cheryl: No one one in DC would know what he or she or zer was looking at. Knowledge and interest in geography and history have been "lost," on purpose.
...and I thought it was just because folks in DC think nothing exists outside the Beltway.
They look at the US and think, wow what a sheet show.
Most of the political class in DC is owned either explicitly or implicitly by the ChiComs.
Our elite haven't been captured. They've run into the arms of those whose interests oppose our nation of their own free will, not like some animal herded into a pen through their own ignorance. https://www.heritage.org/the-oversight-project/countering-ccp-influence/elite-capture-why-america-losing-the-political
From the Chinese point of view I find myself wondering how many conventional warheads I need on my SRBMs, IRBMs, and ICBMs to negate island chain installations which are fixed locations?
Checkmate by creeping pawns.
Is the PLAN's purpose to seize territory or to keep it once its controlled?
Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.(SunTzu, Ch 4.1-3,14-15)
There's too much Eurocentric thinking being applied to China and too little China thinking. It a 3 millennia old culture.
Why keep it? All they need do is look to Iran with it suzerainty over Lebanon and Yemen with Syria and Iraq in process.
Yes
"Billions for Ukraine, not one cent for Palau" seems like a dumb idea.
Sal, as I always feel I must start drinking after reading these depressing articles, I wish you'd publish them after the sun goes below the. yardarm.
Paul, in 2024 it's so much easier not to stop (sadly, I have for a little while ...)
Paul, your analysis and response are 100% correct.
I offer the following for your drinking amusement:
When DDG-51 was commissioned, Arleigh Burke invited the non-duty section engineering officers to his home.
Most likely, he invited every division on the vessel to his home during that time.
I can only verify the experience of one, young sailor.
They dutifully arrived at 0900, at 1000 Mrs. Burke began serving cocktails.
Arleigh telephoned the vessel, and requested to detail his visitors for the rest of the day.
They enjoyed food and drinks with Arleigh well into the evening.
Arleigh ensured that everyone made it back safely to quarters.
All of his guests reported for duty the next day.
It may have been the high point of their careers.
I cannot imagine a better day for a retired sailor than sharing with the next generation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arleigh_Burke#/media/File:Burkefull.jpg
When I was a Senior Midshipman at Boat School, we had a Foreign Affairs conference. I led the panel on "Use of Force." The guy running it pulled me aside and asked me to do one more thing. Escort Admiral Burke. He was initially just supposed to be in my panel one day. He ended up staying there all week. I escorted him around campus all week, but he knew the place better than I did.
I was in total awe of the hero of WWII and 2x CNO. A superb gentleman, and real leader. Amazing opportunity for a young officer.
Jim, Thank you for posting. I'm mixing a rum and water right now, as a tribute to Arleigh Burke, and to help dull the pain in my body. The most important lesson we can learn from him, from my admittedly limited perspective, is to spend as much time as the next generation will allow us, to share what little we have learned. The lessons are timeless, but they are perhaps best passed on by person-to-person contact.
Amen, Harry, amen. Raising a toast to your wisdom and prayers for less pain in your body.
Bless you, Jim! My pain is not at all significant in the history of humanity. With Medicare and Tricare for Life, and tax-free spirits at the Navy Exchange, (they never card me, my wife says they always know a "lifer") I have no regrets at all. I would do it all again if needed. Life is a bowl of cherries, let's just hope they don't break the bowl.
Now Palau has become important and we toss away the 2,000 + that died, and an 80 year relationship.
Jetcal1: It's really disgraceful, the way the US abandons places and people for whom Americans faught and died. While there may be cases where "we shouldn't have been there," Palau was not one of those cases.
I dunno. Did MacArthur truly need that airfield on Peleliu to guard his flank?
OhioCoastie: Yours is a reasonable question to ask. I'll have to go read another naval and mililtary history book or two, or three...
President Whipps has more courage in his little finger than the entire latte-swilling State Department complement of "experts." I hope he doesn't experience CCP justice because you know they are taking notes