AUM NAMAH SHIVAYA
Viewing INDOPACOM as a whole, these total/joint — Diplomacy, Finance, War-Fighting — force posture necessities should be noted:
1- INDOPACOM is an Army show because the Army is the lead component of the total/joint force — which includes also State and Treasury Departments– facing the region’s chief hegemon, China.
Every COCOM is an Army-lead show. Army necessities govern the deployment of all three assets of Statecraft: Diplomacy, Finance, War-Fighting.
2- One cannot make sense geographically, on a map, of a USA national strategic objective to defeat or even neutralize Chinese aggressive, hegemonic imperialism unless Army necessities govern dispositions of the INDOPACOM total/joint force.
3- Except for Naval surface/air, submarine attack, and Marine assault, the INDOPACOM joint force components are land-based (Army) forward artillery of various ranges — cyber and space being the longest-ranged — supporting Army strategic and tactical necessities.
4- Naval surface/air, submarine attack, Marine assault, and Air Force are for clearance of Army Pacific Pathways and Asian Mainland Pathways if, as likely and reasonable, it comes to that. Army should be carrying Navy, not Navy Army, in INDOPACOM.
5- The problem set in INDOPACOM is land-based, not water-or air-based, and especially so when facing Chinese aggressive, hegemonic imperialism, which is the palpable, salient fact in that COCOM. Naval/Marine, Air, Cyber, and Space operations are Army operations extended and coordinated — along with diplomacy and finance — in the multi-domain battle space.
Related 1: Defeat Into Victory: Battling Japan in Burma and India, 1942-1945, Field Marshall, 1st Viscount William Slim, also here.
[Slim’s] joint experience in that theater was with the RAF, but he argued that while the RAF deserved equal credit in their victory, the Army nevertheless was the decisive force to decide the theater.
Related 2: Flight Er Doc to David R. Graham
How many times will it take before we learn to NOT GET INVOLVED IN A LAND WAR IN ASIA?
David R. Graham to Flight Er Doc
Excellent point to raise, thanks! Yesterday’s maxim (and I am a MacArthur devotee). Today it is here. No ignoring. Water is wet land. Cyber is fiery land. Air is thin land. Space is empty land.
Related 3: JoeKlip to David R. Graham
The term far east generally means the region populated by the countries of China and surrounding countries. The term east Asia is for the countries such as India and Pakistan. The origin of the direction is the Mediterranean and thus China is in the eastern direction.
David R. Graham to JoeKlip
Yes, and USA is not on the Mediterranean. We are on the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River, and more to the point, the Pacific Ocean. We moved west from the Med. We wanted out of Europe. We cut the canal in Panama in order to move west easily on water. So to us, China is west, or, Far West.
Under this naming discussion is, as you probably know, a consequential foreign policy posture. During WW II and Korean it was remarked as Europe-First vice Japan-First. Europe-First held the day but Asia-First produced the strongest ally — Japan — and would have made China an ally had not NKVD and CPUSA been allowed to subvert that opportunity.
Since then and until recently, Europe-First has held the USA foreign policy establishment in thrall. They have messed that up something fierce: Eurabia, EU/Swiss-based Globalism, MENA massacres, Russian need for friendship and strategic cooperation rejected or not appreciated, the elitist lust for ruling rather than offer of governing — all hinged geographically at the Mediterranean.
So when I hear USA compass directions — aka foreign policy postures — counted from the Med, I hear more of the same antique, knee-jerk, self-serving assumptions that made one of history’s massive field of sorrows, to wit: USA faces eastward across the Atlantic to Europe. The USA came west across the Atlantic to get away from stinking old Europe, which is older still now and just as stinky if not more so.
The English of which is: you can patronize me if you wish, but don’t expect me to accept it.
JoeKlip to David R. Graham
You really hate the yellow people don’t you.
David R. Graham to JoeKlip
I hate lies, theft, cheating, and those who tolerate those activities. That is who and what I hate. And believe me, I hate them.
Related 4: What China’s Defence Paper Tells Us About Beijing’s Regional Ambition
Related 5: Contemplating Positions On Chinese Flanks
Update 6: Daniel Greenfield: The Future Does Not Belong to China
Update 7: Catherine Smith: Trump Proposes 21% Cut in U.S. Foreign Aid in 2021 Budget Proposal
Update 8: Japan MOD assessment: CCP intentions, assets, orders of battle in Japan’s Pacific AO / PDF
Update 9: Michael J, Good: Chinese Strategy Of Total War
Update 10: Andrew Latham: Mahan, Corbett, and China’s Maritime Grand Strategy
Βασιλεία του Θεού