USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) US Navy nuclear aircraft carrier resupplying anchored in the Mediterranean Sea while visiting Haifa port, Israel, for rest and recreation on 4th of July 2017. By Alexander Turovsky @ Shutterstock.com
After recent news about the Navy’s inability to man seventeen support ships because of personnel shortages and the Navy’s abandonment of the Indo-Pacific region with regard to carrier groups, Benny Avni wonders in The New York Sun if the U.S. can still be called a superpower. He writes:
As American aircraft carriers are absent in the Indo-Pacific region for the first time since 2005, can the United States rightly call itself the world’s top superpower? Beyond Washington, enemies are taking notes and testing that proposition with increased aggression.
The United States Ship Abraham Lincoln, arrived in the Mideast this week. It has left the Indo-Pacific to join the USS Theodore Roosevelt in an attempt to deter the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies, which are threatening attacks on Israel.
The departure of the USS Abraham Lincoln, however, is leaving a void in the Pacific. As it left the region, the USS Ronald Reagan sailed out from Yokosuka, Japan, for routine maintenance. The USS George Washington, which is scheduled to replace the Reagan, is stationed at San Diego, and other carriers are either undergoing repairs or in port. At best, the next American carrier will reach the Pacific in weeks, if not longer.
We can “walk and chew gum at the same time,” the Pentagon’s press secretary, Major General Pat Ryder, said Tuesday. “As we look at requirements around the world in support of our national security interests, we’re always taking great care to make sure that we can cover those commitments to include, in our priority theater, which is the Indo-Pacific region,” he said.
“We have a significant amount of capability there to include a large naval presence,” General Ryder added. Per security considerations, he declined to detail ship movement and say when an air carrier would next deploy to the Pacific.
Yet, is “significant” American capability enough? The People’s Liberation Army Navy is growing while America’s Navy shrinks. Meanwhile, as Communist China increasingly threatens Taiwan, Japan is growing jittery. Around the Philippines, Chinese vessels take over an ever-growing territory that Beijing claims as its own, even though without much credibility.
One of America’s oldest mutual defense treaties, the 1951 pact with the Philippines, has not been updated to address current defensive needs. When Chinese vessels assaulted the Scarborough Shoal in 2012, President Obama advised Manila to go to international arbitration.
After The Hague ruled for the Philippines, Beijing said the decision amounted to no more than a scrap of paper. Washington, however, did little to help enforce the ruling. Now, as an emboldened Beijing is increasingly attacking its territory, Manila once again looks for more American support.
Read more here.
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