Blinken vows more U.S. military might in Indo-Pacific

You know Dasher and Dancer

And Prancer and Vixen

Comet and Cupid

And Donner and Blinken

But do you recall

This is the most famous transparent face piece of all?

For those of you who might not be familiar with the terminology of “free and open,” I want to just spend a minute talking about what it meant when it came from the former administration and when used " free and open" what it means exactly.

When we say “free” Indo-Pacific, it means we all want all nations, every nation, to be able to protect their sovereignty from coercion by other countries. At the national level, “free” means good governance and the assurance that citizens can enjoy their fundamental rights and liberties.

I wonder who said this?

Blinken or Pompeo?

I wonder what is a more healthy approach for allied nations in the Indo Pacific?

ZorotoToday 03:30 pm JST

And the next thing he knows is a hypersonic missile hitting him where the sun don't shine.

How dare you. Any attack on Blinken is a direct attack on the state of Israel. Which is anti-semitic.

Christopher J. ThomasToday  03:22 pm JST

When we say “free” Indo-Pacific, it means we all want all nations, every nation, to be able to protect their sovereignty from coercion by other countries. At the national level, “free” means good governance and the assurance that citizens can enjoy their fundamental rights and liberties.

I wonder who said this?

Former J-PM Shinzo Abe. Seriously, look it up.

I wonder what is a more healthy approach for allied nations in the Indo Pacific?

More healthy than being free and keeping the region open for all? I would not think anything is healthier, or better.

@Ossan,

No no its was a State department press release.

Remarks were made by Michael R. Pompeo Secretary of State while in the US Chamber of Commerce.

Washington, DC, July 30th, 2018.

https://ph.usembassy.gov/remarks-on-americas-indo-pacific-economic-vision/

I never talk about things I am not an expert on or have expertise on. Abe was just on the train with the rest of us in the room.

@Peter, Exactly if that region could be stabilized and left free and open. With longevity it sends a powerful message that we do not require the the left in power to intervene or re-estate the world police. I honesty thing these Asian countries can exert and govern control without US political leadership and influence.

There must be a pay day in pike for the Dems.

I honesty thing these Asian countries can exert and govern control without US political leadership and influence.

I do not agree. China would dominate with little to no opposition and push others out of their traditional fishing grounds, out of their own EEZ and move on disputed territory to wrest control of a larger footprint in the region. They have already done some of that even with the US around. It would simply get much worse without them to back up regional allies.

It would simply get much worse without them to back up regional allies.

In other words, you are saying it should be the US to "dominate with little to no opposition and push others out of their traditional fishing grounds, out of their own EEZ and move on disputed territory to wrest control of a larger footprint in the region"

Christopher J. ThomasToday  06:08 pm JST

@Ossan,

No no its was a State department press release.

I told you to look it up.

"The concept has been developed through Japanese and American cooperation. Japan introduced the FOIP concept and formally put it down as a strategy in 2016. In 2019 the United States Department of State published a document formalizing its concept of a free and open Indo-Pacific."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_Open_Indo-Pacific

https://www.asean.emb-japan.go.jp/files/000352880.pdf

https://www.mod.go.jp/en/d_act/exc/india_pacific/india_pacific-en.html

In other words, you are saying it should be the US to "dominate with little to no opposition and push others out of their traditional fishing grounds, out of their own EEZ and move on disputed territory to wrest control of a larger footprint in the region"

Very inaccurate assumption. let me set you straight on "what I am saying".

The current status quo should be rolled back to give nations in the region full access to their recognized EEZ and traditional fishing rights. The US may have dominated militarily in the region since WWII but it has not attempted to claim ownership of the South China sea or any other water way. The US has built no man made Islands on submerged features in others EEZ and the US has not limited or excluded the Philippines and other nations in the region from their traditional fishing zones. China has made ridiculous claims that are rejected by the international community. China has excluded and limited the Philippines from fishing in it's own EEZ and built made made islands in other nations recognized EEZ.

So have China withdraw to it's own territory and EEZ, and since it can not be trusted to maintain the normal status quo, the US needs to lead with it's regional allies to do just that.

Of course being a CCP supporter you will now reply with a rubbish statement and try to put down the US and it's regional allies and declare China as the moral and rightful leader that should be left to rule the region and beyond as it see's fit. No thanks.

current administration in USA just trying to change the focus to somewhere they havent horribly messed up already.

With the only remaining place that meets that criteria being the "Indo-Pacific".

Of course being a CCP supporter you will now reply with a rubbish statement and try to put down the US and it's regional allies and declare China as the moral and rightful leader that should be left to rule the region and beyond as it see's fit.

In other words, you are saying that the US should be "the moral and rightful leader..." and that any opinion that doesn't agree with yours is rubbish.

current administration in USA just trying to change the focus to somewhere they havent horribly messed up already.

Sure, maybe they should try sending "love letters" like the last guy. Or sending a couple million in clothing contracts. Those sure worked, huh?

With the only remaining place that meets that criteria being the "Indo-Pacific".

Trump thinks the Indo-Pacific is south of our border....near Colorado....

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/23/politics/trump-us-building-wall-colorado/index.html

Please identify an area of the world other than Indo-Pacific that the current administration would be willing to talk about as a "success story" of foreign policy. I cant think of one. They havent messed this one up too only because they havent fully engaged yet.

In other words, you are saying that the US should be "the moral and rightful leader..." and that any opinion that doesn't agree with yours is rubbish.

No, my words are clear and self explanatory. No nation is morally pure or perfect. But the US is nowhere near as bad as China for the region. The US supports fee and open SCS while Chine wants to own it and other regional nations EEZ.

If your opinion is in support of China then it is likely I will consider it rubbish.

World pirates..

It will be ironic if the US 'loses the cold war' to China in exactly the same way that the USSR 'lost the cold war' to the US.

Blinken. A hack that has been hanging around DC for a lifetime. A Bidenite, with a taste for world conflict and keeping the American Empire off the skids thru military might. The mighty American military defeated by peasant armies on mules - peasant armies in black pajamas with straw hats and sandals - still flailing away in Iraq.

Blinken one of the masterminds of the Libyan fiasco. Syrian fiasco. Honduran fiasco. The list goes onward. Now one of the brains behind the Asian Pivot.

As the USA declines into a failed state due to piss-poor economic choices, it determines to use battleship diplomacy, though there are no battleships, just complex machinery easily disabled, so to speak, by a little sand in the tank. Count 'em, over one billion Chinese. A three million soldier army in the field. Chinese techno-wizards easily a match for anything put up by the Pentagon.

All ignoring the facts of economics. A thousand USA companies with 'American' products assembled and manufactured in Chinese factories.

Horse has already left the barn.

Blinken insisted that the U.S. is not trying to force countries to choose between the United States and China or seeking conflict with China.

They should.

Counties should either be with the US, or with China.

Choose carefully.

Well, there was a reason why McCain was deeply worried about this guy, seems his instincts were correct. Look what happened and how he handled Afghanistan, I rest my case.

-The late Sen. John McCain's 2014 floor speech against the nomination of Antony Blinken to serve as deputy secretary of State has resurfaced 

--McCain said in December 2014 that he considered Blinken 'unqualified' and 'one of the worst selections of a very bad lot' 

-'In this case, this individual has actually been dangerous to America and to the young men and women who are fighting and serving it,' McCain warned 

-McCain didn't like that Blinken and President Barack Obama believed U.S. forces could be removed from Afghanistan on a timetable 

'In this case, this individual has actually been dangerous to America and to the young men and women who are fighting and serving it,' McCain said, citing Blinken's ideas about Afghanistan as a prime example. 

He was right, the guy is a walking disaster and a danger.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9909197/McCains-2014-speech-saying-Blinken-dangerous-America-resurfaces.html

"Military MIGHT!" What childish bluster...and rhymes so well with "MIGHT MAKES RIGHT!". 'Might', in this case, simply means an enhanced ability to mass murder both others and your own young people. And the Sayanim zionist Blinken does not serve the best interests of the American People as a chest thumper. We need a talented NEGOTIATOR not a walking CM for the weapons industries and the fools who cannot see what a devastation that war with China would be whatever stupid symbolic rag the last man standing would be waving...and it's VERY likely that an all-out war with China would be an all-out war with Russia as well. American 'allies' are mostly paper tigers (failed empire) and/or a psychopathic people we couldn't trust not to change sides and stab us in the back if the going got tough. China is a FACT. And the idea of "containing" China is just U.S. Greed unwilling to share what they steal from the world and the recognition that Chinese businessmen are WAY better at 'mutually beneficial trade' with their neighbors than the American pirates who 'trade' at the point of a gun, whether economic or ballistic. An interesting exercise might be to go to one's local library and spend some time looking through newspapers of the 'aughts' prior to WWI and the 'thirties' prior to WWII and compare the rhetoric and one may see "Deja vu all over again..."

William BjornsonToday  03:55 am JST

We need a talented NEGOTIATOR not a walking CM for the weapons industries and the fools who cannot see what a devastation that war with China would be whatever stupid symbolic rag the last man standing would be waving...

American 'allies' are mostly paper tigers (failed empire) and/or a psychopathic people we couldn't trust not to change sides and stab us in the back if the going got tough. China is a FACT. And the idea of "containing" China is just U.S. Greed unwilling to share what they steal from the world and the recognition that Chinese businessmen are WAY better at 'mutually beneficial trade' with their neighbors than the American pirates who 'trade' at the point of a gun, whether economic or ballistic.

I actually agree with this. I'm totally cool with pre-WWI isolationist US policies.

Sec. Blinken is an honorable man. His word is good on all U.S. foreign policy issues. The world should be grateful to have him as America's Secretary of State.

Sec. Blinken is an honorable man. His word is good on all U.S. foreign policy issues. The world should be grateful to have him as America's Secretary of State.

Even LeBron James would have been a better choice.