United States Secretary of Defense Llyod Austin gave a speech on why America, he asserts, has to be the ones to essentially govern the world with a shadow hand, by resisting, fighting against, and ultimately defeating those whom they deem to be tyrannical and purveyors of terrorism. Additionally, Austin has criticized Americans calling for neutrality and peace, saying that this not feasible and is “an American retreat from responsibility.”
In a blog post published on the Pentagon’s website, titled “In Troubling Times, World Needs U.S. Leadership,” Austin laid out his case that the U.S. needs to be at the forefront of the world’s conflicts and dissentions.
The opening paragraph of the article begins with, “As the world considers the repercussions of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the brutal Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, an increasingly assertive China, and the disturbing aspirations of nations like Iran and North Korea, it considers also what the role of the United States will be—and what its role must be is leadership, said the U.S. secretary of defense.”
Here is what the Dod and Austin had to say, per their article:
We’re living through challenging times. That includes the major conflicts facing our fellow democracies, Israel and Ukraine; bullying and coercion from an increasingly assertive China; and a worldwide battle between democracy and autocracy.
Lloyd J. Austin III, who spoke today at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, said
When the world appears to be in disarray, Austin said, U.S. allies and partners look to the United States to see what must be done. And the U.S. must not waiver in providing leadership and decision-making.
“These are the times when both our friends and our rivals look to America,” he said. “These are the times when the American people count on their leaders to come together. And these are the times when global security relies on American unity and American strength.”
Since the end of World War II, Austin said, the world has adhered to a rules-based international order, developed with U.S. leadership, that has provided not just the United States, but the entire world an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity. Neither that rules-based order nor U.S. leadership must be allowed to falter, he said.
“The world built by American leadership can only be maintained by American leadership,” Austin said. “American leadership rallies our allies and partners to uphold our shared security. And it inspires ordinary people around the world to work together toward a brighter future.”
Inside the United States, Austin said, some Americans have shied away from the country’s role as a global leader and prefer instead that the U.S. move toward isolationism. Austin said that’s been a mistake in the past and is a mistake today, as well.
If we forfeit our position of responsibility, our rivals and our foes will be glad to fill that vacuum. In every generation, some Americans prefer isolation to engagement — and they try to pull up the drawbridge. They try to kick loose the cornerstone of American leadership. And they try to undermine the security architecture that has produced decades of prosperity without great-power war.
He said
Were the U.S. to shirk its leadership role, he said, America’s enemies and the enemies of its allies would only be emboldened. And that failure to lead would put the security and wellbeing of the United States and its allies at risk.
The cost of abdication has always far outweighed the cost of leadership. The world will only become more dangerous if tyrants and terrorists believe that they can get away with wholesale aggression and mass slaughter.
America will only become less secure if dictators believe they can wipe a democracy off the map. And the United States will only pay a higher price if autocrats and zealots believe that they can force free people to live in fear.
Austin said
The U.S. has not shied away from its leadership role, Austin said, and will not. Instead, he said the U.S. has responded where crises have occurred—such as Ukraine and Israel—and has also continued to strengthen partnerships globally as a way to help future crises from developing.
Following the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, Austin said he made the trip to Israel to assure partners there that the U.S. is committed to their security.
“I flew to Israel to underscore our solidarity and our resolve, and to make it crystal-clear that America’s commitment to Israel’s security is ironclad,” Austin said.
Since then, he said, the U.S. has provided security assistance to Israel and helped get hostages held by Hamas returned home.
“We will continue to do everything that we can to help secure the release of every man, every woman and every child seized by Hamas — including American citizens,” Austin said.
In the Middle East, Austin said, the U.S. has also increased its own security posture. That now includes two carrier strike groups, an amphibious ready group, a Marine expeditionary unit, a guided-missile submarine, integrated air-defense and missile-defense forces, and fighter aircraft and bombers.
Austin also said that U.S. leadership with Israel includes reinforcing important values, such as those embodied in the law of war. And one of those values is that civilians must be protected. It’s something Austin said he had experience with during his time as an Army general operating in Iraq, and it’s something he said the U.S. continues to remind Israel of as it fights against Hamas.
“In this kind of a fight, the center of gravity is the civilian population. And if you drive them into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat,” Austin said. “I have repeatedly made clear to Israel’s leaders that protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza is both a moral responsibility and a strategic imperative.”
The U.S. hasn’t just provided security assistance to Israel, Austin said. The U.S. has also provided humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza. This week, he said, the U.S. airlifted more than 54,000 pounds of U.N. medical supplies, clothing and food to those in Gaza. He said it won’t be the last airlift of supplies.
Going forward, Austin said, the U.S. remains committed also to peace in the Middle East. And that means, he said, there must be a two-state solution there. There must be a nation for the Jewish people, and there must be a nation for the Palestinians, as well. And those two nations must act as good neighbors.
We believe that Israelis and Palestinians must find a way to share the land that they both call home. And that means a path toward two states living side by side in mutual security … a two-state solution remains the only viable way out of this tragic conflict that has ever been proposed.
Austin said
Following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the U.S. also stepped up to its leadership role. Last year, for instance, Austin spearheaded the creation of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a coalition of some 50 nations that meets monthly and is committed to the security of Ukraine now and into the future.
Since the February 2022 Russian invasion, the U.S., allies and partners have worked to get important weapons to the Ukrainians to allow them to defend themselves. Included there are High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS; Patriot air defense systems; Abrams tanks; and more, Austin said.
U.S.-led efforts have helped Ukrainian forces weaken the Russian military, and Austin said that U.S. leadership and partner efforts must not stop until Ukraine is again free.
The outcome of this struggle will define global security for decades to come. And we don’t have the option of sitting it out. President [Joe] Biden has laid down a clear objective: The United States seeks a free and sovereign Ukraine that can defend itself today — and deter more Russian aggression in the future.
And, so, we are working together with our allies and partners to help Ukraine build a future force that can ward off more Russian malice in the years to come.
If the U.S. and partners fail to stand up to Russian aggression, Austin said, Russia will only be emboldened to do more.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine offers a grim preview of a world of tyranny and turmoil that should make us all shudder,” he said.
In the Pacific, Austin said China is the only rival with the intent and potentially the capacity to reshape the international order.
“The PRC [People’s Republic of China] hopes that the United States will stumble and become isolated abroad and divided at home,” he said. “But together, we can prevent that fate. And we have made extraordinary progress, along with our allies and partners, in meeting the China challenge and forging a more secure Indo-Pacific.”
Across the Indo-Pacific region, the U.S. is leading by strengthening partnerships there with other nations who value freedom and democracy.
With the Philippines, for instance, Austin said the U.S. has embarked on an expansion of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. That expansion will allow the U.S. access to four more Philippine military facilities.
The U.S. and India last summer also unveiled a new direction defense industrial cooperation.
“That strategy is already driving our work together on key defense platforms,” he said. “We also rolled out a major deal to build aircraft engines in India. And when I was back in India last month, we announced our intent to co-produce armored vehicles with India — our first time with any foreign partner.”
The U.S. has also been working closely with Japan, South Korea, Papua New Guinea, and Australia, as well.
Through the AUKUS partnership — which includes Australia, the United Kingdom and the U.S. — those three nations will help Australia acquire conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines, Austin said.
In advance of the Reagan National Defense Forum, Austin said he met in California with British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps and Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, who also serves as defense minister, for the second meeting of AUKUS defense ministers.
The United States is a world leader, and its military remains the most lethal fighting force in human history, Austin said. Neither of those will change.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are the United States of America. It’s not enough just to pursue our national interests. We must also live our national values. As President [Ronald] Reagan said, ‘Our foreign policy should be to show by example the greatness of our system and the strength of American ideals.’
We must ensure, as President Biden has said, that America remains ‘a beacon to the world.’ We will not let that beacon flicker or fade. In this uncertain hour, at this time of testing, the world looks to America again. And we must not give our friends, our rivals, or our foes any reason to doubt America’s resolve.
Austin added
Additionally, Austin took more shots at Americans seeking isolationism in these conflicts, and condemned the “gridlock” in Congress that is preventing fiscal aid to Ukraine and Israel to go through – quotations not printed in the Pentagon piece.
You’ll hear some people try to brand an American retreat from responsibility as bold new leadership. Make no mistake: It is not bold. It is not new. And it is not leadership.
Our competitors don’t have to operate under continuing resolutions. And doing so erodes both our security and our ability to compete.
He added, cited by the Associated Press
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
[2] Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue. [6] My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. [7] I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war. Psalms 120:2, 6-7
This right here is the cliche and stereotypical “American exceptionalism” that the world has come to loathe, and for good reason. Practically everything this man and the DoD said can be rebutted and rebuked, but what’s the point? It speaks for itself, and there is not one bit of truth to this, as anyone who understands what’s going on knows this. This is 100% warmongering; and this is the same rhetoric that America’s uniparty/war party has been saying forever now it seems, vomiting the lies that we are “the indispensable nation,” which is what Biden said in October in address to the nation.
Oh, and by the way, this fool used to sit on the Board of Directors at Raytheon, the 2nd largest U.S. defense contractor. You don’t suppose he has vested interest?
Again, to quote Ministry of National Defense of the People’s Republic of China Spokesperson Wu Qian, he said in late-October:
The U.S. are war addicts. The country has existed for 240 years, and only 16 years it did not go to war. The U.S. has established over 800 overseas military bases in more than 80 countries and regions, from Afghanistan to Iraq, from Syria to Libya.
Wherever the US military goes, people die everywhere.
Facts have proved that the US is the fundamental source of international disorder and the biggest disrupter of regional peace and stability.
Say what you will about China and their corruption, and they are, but in this instance they are absolutely correct and justified in what was said here.
It was NEVER our duty to be the world’s police. Here is a snippet from George Washington’s farewell address, warning about foreign entanglements, especially those in Europe:
The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith.—Here let us stop.
Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially for foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships, or enmities.
Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people, under an efficient government, the period is not far off, when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality, we may at any time resolve upon, to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humour or caprice?
’Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances, with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronising infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.
Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.
My ‘o my, how far away have we been removed this?! You ought to read his entire speech sometime. Our founding fathers, and our ancestors who founded and upheld this one blessed nation, both natural and spiritual, are rolling in the graves at the mess we have allowed.
[22] Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old. [23] Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. [24] The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him. [25] Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice. Proverbs 23:22-25
As for Israel, Austin’s comments again display that they have zero interest in peace at all; as evidenced by the habitual calls for a two-state solution, which is why there is war there; especially considering when it is a documented fact that the U.S. and Israel both created and funded Hamas. It’s all about money, like always…
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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I personally believe that’s it is America’s best interest to stay out of foreign affairs.