{"id":109217,"date":"2020-12-01T00:29:33","date_gmt":"2020-12-01T06:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=109217"},"modified":"2020-11-30T17:08:39","modified_gmt":"2020-12-01T00:08:39","slug":"the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-part-2-c7d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/12\/01\/the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-part-2-c7d\/","title":{"rendered":"THE POHOTTUWA GOVERNMENT OF SRI LANKA Part 2 C7d"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

For seven\ndecades from the end of the World War II in 1945, the US Seventh fleet\ndominated the Pacific area and provided much of its security said TIME.     US was  supported in this task, by the \u2018Five Eyes\u2019 a\nhighly secretive  intelligence<\/a> alliance of Australia<\/a>, Canada<\/a>, New Zealand<\/a>,  United Kingdom<\/a> and the United States<\/a>. According to Wikipedia, this expanded to Nine Eyes with\nDenmark, France, Netherlands, Norway and then Fourteen Eyes with Germany, Belgium<\/a>, Italy<\/a>, Spain<\/a> and Sweden<\/a> joining in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of these\ncountries, it appears cannot stand on their own.  They need a protector. New Zealand said they like US being in the\nregion, but if the US is not there the void has to be filled and it will be\nfilled by China.   NATO also said it could not do without the\nUSA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, USA\nis not a global superpower anymore said TIME. The US does not carry as much\nweight in the world economy as it used to. Earlier it was the US which was the\nsingle largest contributor to world growth.  But now the Chinese economy has overtaken it.  When the US share of the world economy falls,\nits ability to wield influence will become less, said analysts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the 21 century\nbegan, US found that it was not as strong as it used to be. USA was no longer able\nto fight wars by itself.  U.S. Army<\/a> was ranked\n“weak\u201d   in the Heritage\nFoundation\u2019s 2017 Index of U.S. Military Power<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

US Air force\nconsists of \u2018old models\u2019, in stark contrast to its rivals. US Navy maintains a\nmoderate global presence, but has little ability to meet wartime demands.  Naval air power, which since World War II has\nbeen the main weapon in the U.S. arsenal, is no longer effective.USA can no\nlonger scare away countries, by dispatching carriers or guided missile cruisers\nto loiter menacingly offshore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysts observed in October 2019, that the U.S. Navy isn\u2019t\nready to take on even Iran.  Iran has a domestically\nproduced Noor antiship missile (a reverse-engineered copy of a Chinese cruise\nmissile) which was dangerous at over 100 miles. In 2016, the USS Mason, a\ndestroyer ship, discovered this when it was targeted by several Noor missiles.\nThe combination of these missiles and Iran\u2019s fleet of fast and cheap patrol\nboats has been enough to keep the USS Lincoln out of the Persian Gulf in 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China\u2019s army, on the other hand was getting stronger. Robert D\nKaplan said in   2009 that in the next\ndecade, China’s navy will have more warships than the United States’. China is\nproducing and acquiring submarines five times as fast as is the United States.\nIn addition to submarines, the Chinese have wisely focused on buying naval\nmines, ballistic missiles that can hit moving targets at sea, and technology\nthat blocks signals from GPS satellites, on which the U.S. Navy depends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of this, US is getting ready for war against China, and\nplans to fight  China, not only in South\nChina Sea, but also in the Indian Ocean.US wishes to prevent the rise of China\nas a superpower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Head of the US\nIndo-Pacific command, Davidson, made a statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee in\nFebruary 2019, where    he identified\nChina as the enemy  and Indo Pacific as USA\u2019s \u2018priority theater\u2019 of war. He called for\n\u2018combat-ready deterrence\u2019 to \u2018win before fighting\u2019 and, if necessary, \u2018be ready\nto fight and win.\u2019 The armed\nforces are to be \u2018forward-postured in the region.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But US alone cannot stand up to China, other countries must also\ncome in, US said. The challenges we face in the Indo-Pacific extend beyond what\nany single country can address alone, admitted USA. USA is therefore\nseeking alliances and partnerships, with\nlike-minded countries  to fight in the\nwar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

US has set up\nan anti-Chinese axis using India and Japan. This\nbecame the Quadrilateral Security\nDialogue (Quad) a\nmilitary alliance between the United States<\/a>, Japan<\/a>, Australia<\/a> and India<\/a> . This has become\nQUAD plus\u201d, with UK and France added said analysts in 2019. The QUAD is\nessentially a military strategic alliance to counter emerging threats from\nChina in the Indo-Pacific region. Warships of the Quad- were to meet in\nNovember 2020 in Malabar naval exercise off the Goa coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It appears\nthat the Quad alone is not enough to contain China. USA needs a further Joint\nForce that can act as an effective deterrent and also win in a conflict. In November 2020 Secretary of the US Navy announced\nthat he wants to set up a new   fleet,\u201d \u2018in the crossroads\u2019 between Indian &\nPacific Oceans, where it could act as a deterrent. We can\u2019t just rely on the Seventh Fleet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

US has also concocted a new international region, the\n\u2018Indo-Asia-Pacific Region\u2019, which includes the Indian Ocean and the Pacific\nOcean. US president Barrack Obama\nidentified Indo-Pacific as the Centre of its international security strategy. The Indo \u2013Pacific region has now become\nimportant, said the US Defence Department in 2019. However, there is no such\nthing as an \u2018Indo-Pacific\u2019, said Tamara Kunanayagam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

USA admits that it is not located in the Indian Ocean. USA is\nlocated in the Pacific Ocean. However, USA says it is linked to its\nIndo-Pacific neighbors through unbreakable bonds of shared history, culture,\ncommerce, and values.\u201d It   therefore has\nan enduring commitment to uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific in which all\nnations, regardless of size, are able to exercise their sovereignty free from\ncoercion by other countries.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

USA wishes to promote a rules-based free and open Indo-Pacific.    The US\nwants to see a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific that respects principles such\nas peaceful resolution of disputes, freedom of navigation, open and transparent\ninvestment environments, and strong and responsible governing institutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Germany\u2019 also\nsaid it wishes to see rules-based orderinthe Indo-Pacific region. While Germany\nis not an Indo-Pacific nation, many European states are joining the\nIndo-Pacific axis for the enormous trade potential in Asia, Germany said. The\nshape of tomorrow\u2019s international order will be decided in the Indo-Pacific.  Germany should play an active role in this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kevin Rudd,\nformer Prime Minister of Australia was very encouraging towards USA. It\u2019s\nimportant for Americans to understand that they are still in an extraordinarily\npowerful position in relation to both China and the rest of the world, Rudd\nsaid, in September 2020.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

America\nremains a powerful country in economic terms, in technological terms and in\nmilitary terms, and against all three measures still today more powerful than\nChina. In the case of the military, significantly more powerful than China,\nsaid Rudd., America\u2019s military remains formidable.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Americans\nshouldn\u2019t talk themselves out of global leadership in the future. Of course,\nthe gap is beginning to narrow, but this will take a long period of time, and\nthere are a number of potential mishaps for China, concluded Rudd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former United\nStates Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger is not so optimistic.  He does not think USA will win and he does\nnot think it a good idea for US to start a war. \nHe thinks US warmongering should stop immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

America and\nChina are now drifting increasingly toward confrontation, and they\u2019re\nconducting their diplomacy in a confrontational way,\u201d said Kissinger. The\ndanger is that this could lead to actual military conflict.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kissinger said\nUS should move quickly to restore lines of communication with China or risk a\ncrisis that could escalate into military conflict. If that happens, the world\nwill slide into an experience comparable to World War I, and go into   a war which would be far worse than World War\nII. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

US and China\nshould jointly create a negotiating group where some leader that the US President\ntrusts and some Chinese leader that President Xi trusts remain in contact with\neach other on behalf of their Presidents,\u201d he said. (Continued) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS For seven decades from the end of the World War II in 1945, the US Seventh fleet dominated the Pacific area and provided much of its security said TIME.     US was  supported in this task, by the \u2018Five Eyes\u2019 a highly secretive  intelligence alliance of Australia, Canada, New Zealand,  United Kingdom and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109217\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}