U.S. defense chief to visit Japan next week

Does it matter by January, in one month there will be new one.

Austin will leave office by Jan. 20, when U.S. President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.

talk about “saving the best for last” and “burying the lede”.

Waste of time talk with the losers..

Wall Street lobbies send their chief, eager to get more contracts before 20th of January, and increase the US warmongering posture in Asia

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will travel to Japan next week..trip seen as part of efforts to confirm the robust bilateral alliance before the end of President Joe Biden's administration in January."

Sounds like squeezing in some last free overseas trips before change of administration. Not like the US-Japan bilateral alliance isn't confirmed dozen times each year.

TokyoLiving

Waste of time talk with the losers..

WW2 was a long time ago. Isn't it time we moved on? ;-)

SOD's final message to Japan, likely something to the effect...

"So sorry we failed, destabilized the entire world, causing destruction of currencies real purchasing power, massive inflation, 21st century arm's race and ended up empowering as a result China, Russia, Iran and NK."

Final push for US weapons shopping.

Raytheon guy needs to secure his last deals.

Business.Nothing else.Just pure business.

sakurasuki

Does it matter by January, in one month there will be new one.

International relations among democratic countries do not function the same way as they do in dictatorial regimes like yours. In democratic societies, the state is not controlled by a single person. Relationships between states are governed by long-term provisions that go far beyond a presidential term. No single individual, not even Trump, can easily change that. Furthermore, there will be midterm elections in two years and another presidential election in just four years. States under democracy are fundamentally different from those under dictatorship like yours.

Americans voted for a new direction, including winding down the endless wars, that have made the world far more dangerous than any time since WWII.

Most voters in US and elsewhere do not want talk of nuclear conflict to be commonplace and for military budgets to grow non-stop. Enough is enough, certainly Japan's been a HUGE loser due to these endless wars.

HopeSpringsEternalToday 03:00 pm JST

Americans voted for a new direction, including winding down the endless wars, that have made the world far more dangerous than any time since WWII.

Most voters in US and elsewhere do not want talk of nuclear conflict to be commonplace and for military budgets to grow non-stop. Enough is enough, certainly Japan's been a HUGE loser due to these endless wars.

Foreign affairs was not even in the top 10 issues but thank you for gaslighting.

The US are pursuing their own economic interests, with few weeks to go for the present (shameful) administration. And without Japan having a say in this charade. A clear example of Washington is run by the military big military-industrial complex.

FosToday 12:56 am JST

The US are pursuing their own economic interests, with few weeks to go for the present (shameful) administration. And without Japan having a say in this charade. A clear example of Washington is run by the military big military-industrial complex.

Every country pursues their own economic interests but that has nothing to do with the 1% of US GDP that is the US arms industry.

After inciting a dangerous war in Eastern Europe with the Nato enlargement (over $90 billions in arms supplies sent to Ukraine), and supporting Israel mass killings in Gaza and Lebanon ($20 billions in lethal weapons provided to IDF army in 2024), now the US lobbies in Wall Street are pushing the big military-industrial complex to move to Asia full strength, taking advantage of a missing president. They call it deterrence, which obviously created a tragedy in Middle East and Ukraine, death and devastation. 

We call it “greed of the few at somebody (hundreds of thousands) expenses”.

These are the latest orders of the big US military apparatus in the last month, trying to

And as we know Wall Street, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite rose to new records.

FosToday 09:07 am JST

After inciting a dangerous war in Eastern Europe with the Nato enlargement (over $90 billions in arms supplies sent to Ukraine), and supporting Israel mass killings in Gaza and Lebanon ($20 billions in lethal weapons provided to IDF army in 2024), now the US lobbies in Wall Street are pushing the big military-industrial complex to move to Asia full strength, taking advantage of a missing president. They call it deterrence, which obviously created a tragedy in Middle East and Ukraine, death and devastation. 

We call it “greed of the few at somebody (hundreds of thousands) expenses”.

These are the latest orders of the big US military apparatus in the last month, trying to

And as we know Wall Street, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite rose to new records.

Still Putin's War and Still 1% of GDP

@ HopeSprings - Most voters in US and elsewhere do not want talk of nuclear conflict to be commonplace and for military budgets to grow non-stop.

Yes. And also "A stitch in time saves nine", "Don't turn your back and run from a Bear", etc. Because otherwise there will be total war.

CPowell

 Still 1% of GDP

They they keep lying, musty be memory loss :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyyhvgZpleo

USA remains by far the largest spender in the world, allocating 3.1 times more to the military than the second largest spender, China.

In 2023 the White House contributed 68% of Nato's total expenditure with over $900 billions. You can only imagine the data for 2024 after the catastrophe in the Middle East and the foraging in Ukraine.

Statistics from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute  

https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/2404_fs_milex_2023.pdf

SOD position of support for Ukraine war was not widely held by the electorate this Nov 5th, support for this war has dropped steadily over time.

Nov 5th election exit polling, foreign policy ranked #5

Anyone who watched the Al Smith dinner, the famous Catholic Charity event held a few weeks before the election, understood how opposed Catholics were to US Ukraine War policy. Trump noted multiple times in his speech he would wind down the war ASAP.

Trump gained 10pts with Catholics vs. 2020, who make up over 22% of the electorate. Ukraine is a Catholic majority country and Catholics did not support US Ukraine war policy = want the war stopped.

Full of SomethingToday 10:20 am JST

CPowell

 Still 1% of GDP

They they keep lying, musty be memory loss :)

Still waiting on actual evidence it is incorrect and not your sipri thing which is not the same thing as the weapons industry.

USA remains by far the largest spender in the world, allocating 3.1 times more to the military than the second largest spender, China.

No one can can know what China spends.

In 2023 the White House contributed 68% of Nato's total expenditure with over $900 billions. You can only imagine the data for 2024 after the catastrophe in the Middle East and the foraging in Ukraine.

The US is a third of NATO's population and if they rely on us to throw back the russian and the Chinese, that shows we can be counted on.

HopeSpringsEternalToday 05:38 pm JST

Fact is the $ today buys about 3x less commodities as a broad-based index (e.g. CRB) than prior to Ukraine war.

That's because that index includes a bunch of petroleum products. Food is only up 20%, but don't let reality get in the way of your gaslighting.

There is no justification for a departing US SoD to go to Japan to try to sell more weapons. That is warmongering, clear and simple. You can put it the way you want, deterrence is not helping Ukraine, the $20 billions weapons did not help stabilizing the Middle East conflict.

FosDec. 7 11:24 pm JST

There is no justification for a departing US SoD to go to Japan to try to sell more weapons. That is warmongering, clear and simple.

Weapons is not warmongering for peaceful countries like Japan and Ukraine.

You can put it the way you want, deterrence is not helping Ukraine,

That's because they weren't allowed to have nukes.

the $20 billions weapons did not help stabilizing the Middle East conflict.

The ME has always been in conflict.

What amazes me most about the U.S. politics is the fact that a USCT descendant can be the head

of the defense organization., the Pentagon.