War is breaking out where most of us had not expected it.
By now we are accustomed to daily headlines on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and on the Israelis fighting to destroy Hamas terrorists in Gaza. What’s next, and how capable is America of standing by still more countries under siege and under attack?
The question assumes special relevance when you consider U.S. troops are not fighting on the ground in Ukraine or Gaza. These are proxy wars. America is sending arms and funds, but it is not Americans who are fighting and dying.
What’s going to happen, then, if the U.S. is called on to send its own troops?
We must face that possibility, with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un escalating his threats against South Korea, not to mention Japan and the U.S. The United States is bound by separate treaties with both South Korea and Japan to defend them. Washington maintains huge bases in both countries. The fear, though, is that of a war involving hundreds of thousands of troops against the two other major powers, China and Russia, in contention for the region.
At the moment, that concern seems abstract. China’s President Xi Jinping may talk big when it comes to taking over the independent island province of Taiwan, but he does not appear to be quite willing to go to war. That was clear from his recent meeting with President Biden in San Francisco.
Sure, he’s asserting Chinese influence from the Korean peninsula to the South China Sea, and in Southeast Asia and beyond, but he’s not interested in anything much more serious than skirmishes with Indian troops along the Himalayan frontier.
The Taiwan presidential election on Jan. 13 may test the degree of Xi's warlike intentions.
The outgoing Taiwan president, Tsai Ing-wen, has resolutely refused to upset China by........