Joint Military Exercises: The World Knows America’s True Intentions

A cannonade of military exercises now disturbs the tranquility of the Asia-Pacific region. It is the U.S. and its allies that are leading these military maneuvers. On February 6 the curtains fell on the seven day long US-Japanese “Yama Sakura 61” joint military exercises, and it has been announced that the largest multinational war exercise in Asia-Pacific history, “Cobra Gold”, will follow. The nations taking part in these exercises will not only include America, Japan and South Korea, but also Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore. Furthermore, it is said that the US and South Korea will hold joint exercises in late February code-named “Crucial Resolve” and “Bald Eagle,” in order to “respond to the situation in the peninsula in the post-Kim Jong-il era.”

What is America up to, with this sabre-rattling? Of course the whole world knows their real intentions. America wants to put on a big military production for the populations of countries like Japan and South Korea, to let them see the “power and grandeur” of the American armed forces and feel the “shock and awe” of the military exercises, making the peoples of Japan, South Korea and other countries believe that only the American soldier can protect their heroes if a time of war draws near. This is the effect that the White House hopes for. The joint military exercises are just a political drama, full of the violent colors of psychological warfare, they are a fashion show for the U.S. military, but at the same time they are a quintessential element of U.S. global strategy since the Cold War era.

These military exercises are a tool for maintaining pressure—Americans naturally wouldn’t come out and say it this way, but the true intent is definitely to use war games to exert pressure. When the Japanese media reports on the “Yama Sakura 61” exercises, they say that the reason for holding joint Japanese-American military drills is in order to face new challenges in the East Asian situation, and to strengthen the U.S.-Japanese alliance. On the contrary, Japan really appears to want to follow tightly behind America’s buttocks, completely failing to reflect on what, in the end, is meant by “new challenges” in the stability of the region and their relations with China. As far as Washington is concerned, established policies advance according to the status quo—the joint exercises are to help their allies model enemies, to make the allies experience a tense regional situation, and thereby demonstrate the “irreplaceable value” of the United States. They can only demonstrate the value of their presence in Asia by using military exercises to poke holes; they can only draw in their Asian allies by relying on tense regional situations; they can only defend their influence with a club in hand.

These military exercises conform to America’s longest-term strategic goal. From the perspective of the White House, who can really block America from declaring world hegemony? There are at least two countries with the courage and strength to do this. One of them is Russia, and the other is China. In the areas surrounding China and Russia, the US needs a strategically valuable situation, and an atmosphere of tension that can stir up trouble. Having this kind of situation and atmosphere, they can then preserve their military presence and central position in the regions around China and Russia, and they can maintain and strengthen their boundaries and constraints on China and Russia. To the White House, the Cold War mentality is a kind of precious possession that still cannot be given up. What is really reflected in America’s frequent joint military exercises around Russia and China is that America continues to carry its Cold War strategies into the present day. Washington wants to use these military exercises to create a tense situation, in order to preserve and even strengthen its leading position in the Asia-Pacific region, and thus to realize its wild schemes of declaring world hegemony.