Mr. Donald Trump spoke on his policies in the joint session of the US Congress for about an hour on 28 February, his first in the Congress. Let me extract a few relevant passages from there and place them in the broader question of peace and security in Asia-Pacific.
He has confirmed his plan to build a gigantic wall along America's southern border, but we will not go into the problems of the Western hemisphere here. More familiar to our region is his determination to 'protect our nation from radical Islamic terrorism'. He also talked about new sanctions on Iran, and firm alliance with Israel. I wonder, however, if, to be fair, in the eyes of an unarmed people of Palestine, Israel does not owe its existence to its armed might, call it terrorism if you like, assisted mainly by the US and Britain. I wonder also if the Muslim countries including Iran have not been invaded either by the US or US-sponsored countries in recent history. These issues have been discussed in these columns more than once, and let me not repeat them right now.
Let me call attention to the phrase, 'My job is to represent the United States of America'. Looks innocent, ordinary, and normal, in the first appearance. But read it together with what he says on America's 'partners' in Europe, Middle East, and the Pacific having to increase their defence expenditure, upto, say, 2% of their GDP. Almost simultaneously he declared that he wants to increase the American military expenditure by $ 5 billion, and the number of the US aircraft carriers from the present 10 to 12.
What for? The US is forcing Japan, or rather the present obedient(what a shame!) Japanese Government, to build a huge air and naval basis at Henoko, Okinawa. They are similarly pressurizing the South Korean Government to build an enormous naval base at Cheju Island, off the main Peninsula. They are selling a large amount of weapons to Taiwan. Would it be possible, under the circumstances, to think of any other country than China, PRC, as their main target? And naturally the now economically resilient China is trying to counter the move by building their own carrier task forces, leasing many ports around the Indian Ocean(presumably a part of their plan of encircling India also), and other measures. Thus the military expenditure has been increasing all over the Asia-Pacific. China's figure at the moment is about a quarter of that of the US, although there is a lot of talk on its transparency.
Mr. Trump has complained in his speech that the US has spent $ 6,000 billion on the Middle East at the expense of maintaining her own infrastructure in good shape. But why not spent it the other way round? He has devoted a considerable time of his speech to mentioning and introducing various categories of the US patriots and their families. They must deserve it. But why did he take so much time when he should have mentioned and introduced his main policies? Not to let the people to take the heavy doses once again?
He has confirmed his plan to build a gigantic wall along America's southern border, but we will not go into the problems of the Western hemisphere here. More familiar to our region is his determination to 'protect our nation from radical Islamic terrorism'. He also talked about new sanctions on Iran, and firm alliance with Israel. I wonder, however, if, to be fair, in the eyes of an unarmed people of Palestine, Israel does not owe its existence to its armed might, call it terrorism if you like, assisted mainly by the US and Britain. I wonder also if the Muslim countries including Iran have not been invaded either by the US or US-sponsored countries in recent history. These issues have been discussed in these columns more than once, and let me not repeat them right now.
Let me call attention to the phrase, 'My job is to represent the United States of America'. Looks innocent, ordinary, and normal, in the first appearance. But read it together with what he says on America's 'partners' in Europe, Middle East, and the Pacific having to increase their defence expenditure, upto, say, 2% of their GDP. Almost simultaneously he declared that he wants to increase the American military expenditure by $ 5 billion, and the number of the US aircraft carriers from the present 10 to 12.
What for? The US is forcing Japan, or rather the present obedient(what a shame!) Japanese Government, to build a huge air and naval basis at Henoko, Okinawa. They are similarly pressurizing the South Korean Government to build an enormous naval base at Cheju Island, off the main Peninsula. They are selling a large amount of weapons to Taiwan. Would it be possible, under the circumstances, to think of any other country than China, PRC, as their main target? And naturally the now economically resilient China is trying to counter the move by building their own carrier task forces, leasing many ports around the Indian Ocean(presumably a part of their plan of encircling India also), and other measures. Thus the military expenditure has been increasing all over the Asia-Pacific. China's figure at the moment is about a quarter of that of the US, although there is a lot of talk on its transparency.
Mr. Trump has complained in his speech that the US has spent $ 6,000 billion on the Middle East at the expense of maintaining her own infrastructure in good shape. But why not spent it the other way round? He has devoted a considerable time of his speech to mentioning and introducing various categories of the US patriots and their families. They must deserve it. But why did he take so much time when he should have mentioned and introduced his main policies? Not to let the people to take the heavy doses once again?
