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https://www.wsj.com/articles/japan-new-china-reality-nobuo-kishi-military-11628799373?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

The drumbeat of concern from America’s most important Asian ally about China’s military rise is getting louder. Last month Japan’s Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso warned that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan could threaten Japan’s “survival.” Now Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi has bluntly acknowledged America’s relative decline in the Western Pacific and the need for Japan to assert itself militarily to fill the void.

The remarks came in an interview with Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald. Mr. Kishi “said the shifting power balance between the US and China ‘has become very conspicuous’ while a military battle over Taiwan had ‘skewed greatly in favour of China,’” the paper reports. He added that China “is trying to change the status quo unilaterally backed by force and coercion” and said “we must build a structure where we can protect ourselves.”

Japanese officials are normally soft-spoken in public, but China’s immense military buildup has become impossible to ignore. According to a new Lowy Institute report by military analyst Thomas Shugart, China has “become the world’s premier sea power by most measures,” adding 80 warships to its navy in the last five years while the U.S. added 36.

Measured by warship tonnage, China’s naval expansion since 2016 easily outpaced the expansion of the U.S. Pacific fleet and the allied “Quad” navies of India, Japan and Australia combined, the report finds. The U.S. Navy retains some qualitative advantages, but quantity eventually overwhelms quality.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/taliban-seize-kandahar-prepare-to-march-on-kabul-11628846975

KABUL—The Taliban pressed their rapid advance across Afghanistan with the capture of Kandahar, the nation’s second-largest city and the Islamist movement’s birthplace, and next threatened Kabul, prompting the U.S. to send thousands of troops for a diplomatic evacuation.

After 20 years of war, much of what the U.S. sought to accomplish in Afghanistan crumbled in just one week. The insurgent movement controlled none of Afghanistan’s provincial capitals until it seized the remote city of Zaranj just a week earlier, Aug. 6.

During that advance, Afghan security forces, meant to number 350,000 men, often surrendered without a fight, with soldiers giving up American-bought weaponry and taking advantage of Taliban promises of amnesty. Politicians in the U.S.-backed government in Kabul continued to squabble, with some senior officials quietly slipping abroad, at a time when unity was required the most.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17633/iran-sea-war

While the Iranian mullahs have been busy breaching two critical international laws, the international community — especially the United States, EU and UN Security Council — have remained silent.

If it were Israel that carried out such a deadly attack, the international community would be up in arms trying to take tough actions against the tiny state.

Worse, the Biden administration and the EU probably still want to revive the catastrophic nuclear deal and lift sanctions against Iran’s lawless and predatory regime.

The Iranian regime has ratcheted up its assaults at sea while the Biden administration and the European Union continue pressing to revive the disastrous Obama nuclear deal and lift sanctions against the ruling mullahs.

On July 30, 2021, the oil tanker MV Mercer Street was attacked by an armed drone 280km from the port of Al-Daqam in the Sea of Oman. Two crew members, one British and one Romanian, were killed in the attack. The ship is Japanese-owned and Liberian-flagged, and is managed by Zodiac Maritime, a British company that is one of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer’s businesses.

Many countries — including the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and Israel — concluded that the Iranian regime was behind the deadly attack. Following an investigation by an expert team from the US Defense Department, which inspected the MV Mercer Street following the attack, the US Central Command wrote in a statement:

“The use of Iranian designed and produced one way attack ‘kamikaze’ UAVs is a growing trend in the region. They are actively used by Iran and their proxies against coalition forces in the region, to include targets in Saudi Arabia and Iraq.”