How Is What’s Wrong With US Power Today

General Fan Changlong pictured with Ash Carter during his visit to Washington.Relations between the US and China are strained amid disputes over the South China Sea and alleged cyber attacks by Chinese hackers. Photo: Reuters

Jerry Hendrix and Bryan McGrath, Defense One: How This US Navy Admiral Gives In to China Is Exactly What’s Wrong With US Power Today

Authoritarian regimes are taking advantage of US passivity to gain territory, a phenomenon many thought extinct.

he world desires and needs American leadership to confront the expansion of authoritarian regimes that seek to undermine the global economic system and the rule of law that so many have labored so hard and sacrificed so much to establish over the past 70 years. But from Central Europe, where Russian aggression has illegally occupied the Crimea and other regions of Ukraine, to the Middle East where ISIS seeks to destroy every aspect of stable order, to the western Pacific where China is attempting to bully other nations into accepting its historically unfounded claims of sovereignty over international waters, that system of governance is under constant attack. Hence it was a disappointment to read that Rear Adm. Jeff Harley said this about the South China Sea: “There is room in the maritime realm for multiple powers, really all powers”, even as a Chinese admiral on the same stage said, “The South China Sea, as the name indicates, is a sea area that belongs to China.” The contrast between the two voices could not have been more stark — or ominous.

WNU Editor: It is easy to blame an admiral for projecting passivity during a time when he should not .... but it is President Obama who dictates policy, and it is his priorities that officials for the U.S. government must follow. This U.S. admiral is only reiterating U.S. policy, and that policy today is to not cause conflict nor provoke a confrontation. The problem with such a policy is that the aggressors are never satisfied, and with time their demands will only increase.