One might assume that two unpopular wars are enough for any president, but not necessarily so…
The United States is stoking tensions with China over Taiwan, which is internationally-recognized as a province of the People’s Republic of China.
With this fall’s presidential election fast approaching, President Joe Biden is presiding over two major US-backed wars.
In the Donbass, the United States supports Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an increasingly quixotic proxy conflict against one of the world’s foremost military powers. In occupied Gaza, the US provides limitless military aid as Israel engages in an operation against mostly unarmed Palestinians that has been deemed plausibly genocidal by the International Court of Justice.
One might assume that two unpopular wars are enough for any president. Not so, say analysts Steve Poikonen and Jim Kavanagh, who joined Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program on Friday to discuss Biden’s recent act of saber rattling thousands of miles away from the United States.
“‘Taiwan confirms presence of US special forces,’” said host Garland Nixon, reading the headline of a story reported by RT. “‘US special forces are stationed on some of Taiwan’s outlying islands.’ Well, one of the groups of islands is called the Kinmen Islands – they’re a little over a mile from the Chinese [mainland] shore – as the US runs right up to Russia’s border, as there’s a disaster in the Middle East.”
“These lunatics in the Biden administration are doubling down, tripling down,” he claimed. “If there isn’t enough trouble, they’re coming right up to China’s border and looking for trouble.”
“Taiwan is a province of the People’s Republic of China,” noted Kavanagh, who maintains a substack site at thepolemicist.net. “That is the stance of the international [community], of the UN, it’s the stance – the official stance – of the United States government… This is as if China put a permanent presence of Chinese special forces troops on Long Island. I mean, this is crazy.”
“If they don’t think the Chinese are going to be PO’d about this, I mean, anybody would be,” he added. “They are de-facto trying to create, posit and position Taiwan as an independent country, and that is against the entire one-China policy that’s supposed to have been in place since 1972 when Nixon went to China.”
Former President Richard Nixon’s engagement with the People’s Republic of China brought an end to decades of US-led embargo on the country. Gradually, other countries warmed to the Communist-led government as well as international organizations recognized the PRC instead of breakaway leadership in Taiwan. China emerged as a major economic power as Western countries moved manufacturing there to take advantage of cheap labor costs.
But emerging Chinese influence – the Asian country now leads the world in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) – has startled the United States. US relations with China have deteriorated in the years since former US President Barack Obama announced a “pivot to Asia” in an attempt to out-compete Beijing. More recently, observers worry war will break out as the United States seeks to guard its global hegemonic status.
“This is putting the American people on a trajectory towards war with China, and they [the Biden administration] seem to want it,” warned Kavanagh. “What are they going to get from it? Really, think for 10 seconds about it. It’s going to be a disaster for everybody.”
Meanwhile, Poikonen noted recent reports that a US Army restructuring will re-position America’s armed forces to fight a large-scale conflict in the Eastern Hemisphere. The effort will create at least three new task forces dedicated to combat in the Pacific region.
News of the restructuring follows a $75 million US weapons package for authorities in Taiwan that will allow the island’s armed forces to integrate with foreign military technology.
“The level of delusion that you have to be operating under or the misplaced loyalty you’re putting into your drone programs and things of that nature – it is counterintuitive to anything other than a nationwide suicide mission,” said Poikonen.
“We’ve known that there are US soldiers in Taiwan since they talked about sending training officers,” he added. “That’s what they originally said about Vietnam. ‘Oh, we’re just sending some guys over to do a little bit of training. It’s okay, they’re going to be in a supervisory role, or an advisory capacity.’ That’s how all of these conflicts usually start.”
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