The U.S. and Philippine Marines are engaging in military exercises in an apparent preparation for war with China, which could be touched off by China's imperialistic designs on keeping Taiwan under its sphere of influence.
The plan would be to use the Marines to expand a footprint in the region so that war would not be as so slanted into China's well-established roots in the region.
"We hold our foot in the door so that the door can't be slammed shut for the rest of the joint force and that puts us at risk potentially," 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment’s anti-air battalion Lt. Col. James Arnold told The Wall Street Journal. "That's why we're working every day on tactics that would allow us to do that effectively and survivably."
The exercises are providing training and making war-game plans to help slow China's war machine in the event World War III breaks out between two nuclear powers.
The Marines in the area give the U.S. an ability to "complicate" China war advances, according to Col. John Lehane's account to the Journal, adding China would have to "expend an awful lot of resources to figure out where we are and what we're doing."
The U.S. military is "continually refining the balance between what is the lightest package I can put there to reduce the logistics burden while still making sure that it is combat credible and able to fight," Lehane said.
China would have to account for the Marines in the region, the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Benjamin Jensen told the Journal.
"The ideal case is that you have these fluid forces that are flowing up and down the first island chain, so you're constantly forcing [China] to look for you," he said.
"Every sensor China tasks to look for a Marine Corps littoral regiment is a sensor that isn't tasked on another target."
Putting a "tremendous tax" on Chinese military intelligence will keep them guessing, Jensen added.
"You want them to go on wild-goose chases," he said.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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