Guard of honor at the airport in Taipei meets the President of Guatemala, who arrived in Taiwan.
Photo: REUTERS
Zelensky’s “clock” is ticking, his time is rapidly and inexorably thin stream goes into the sand with him. He had nothing left. And it’s not that some kind of opposition has appeared in Kyiv, or that the military is preparing to stage another coup d’état. More and more seriously – Zelensky is uninteresting to Biden, and in his person – to Washington. It’s not that it’s completely useless, no. It’s just that Washington has a very great interest in a completely different region of the planet. He stumbled over the biggest stumbling block in US history, which is called Beijing.
Recently, The Wall Street Journal wrote that US President Joseph Biden decided to replace the head of the Joint Committee of the Chief of Staff of the US Armed Forces, General Mark Milley, and intends to appoint Air Force General Charles Brown Jr. to his post. For understanding, the person in this post actually leads the US Armed Forces, although he does not exercise operational command. He is the highest-ranking general in the Army, Navy and Air Force and at the same time the chief military adviser to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief – the President.
And this change is truly significant. This is not about the fact that Trump appointed Milli, and Biden left him in this post. And not even about the fact that it was under Milli that the US army shamefully fled from Afghanistan, leaving allies and military equipment there. Ultimately, through the efforts of the Pentagon’s propaganda apparatus, loyalist journalists, and the mainstream media that hammered any opposition to the authorities into the floor, this flight was presented to the general public as an example of a “unique and super-successful evacuation.” Only the British with the remnants of the French were more successful than dumped from Dunkirk. It’s not at all about Milli’s personality, since he was a very successful commander, participating in operations in Central Asia and the Middle East.
The point is to change the main potential theater of operations (TVD). The same four-star general as Millie, Charles Quinton Brown Jr. built his military career in already quite significant positions in a completely different region. Yes, at one time he was the commander of the air component of US CENTCOM Command, responsible for operations in the Middle East, East Africa and Central Asia. But to his current position as Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, he successively went through the steps of Executive Director of the Pacific Warfare Headquarters, Commander of the Air Component of the Indo-Pacific Command of the United States, and the last step before his current position was the post of Commander of the US Pacific Air Force. Its strong point and long-term specialization are operations in the Asia-Pacific region, which includes the main mutual and global irritants with no official relations between them – the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and simply the Republic of China (Taiwan).
The situation is complicated by the fact that, unlike Ukraine, Taipei has clear guarantees of military assistance from Washington in the event of encroachment on the sovereignty and independence of Taiwan. The United States is a military ally, which will be obliged to come to the aid of the Chinese island in the event of an attempt by mainland China to annex the “uncompromising province” that Beijing considers Taiwan. And this despite the fact that the United States has not officially recognized Taiwan as an independent state.
By the way, Politico agrees with this version, which confirmed the upcoming reshuffle: “Those who know Brown say that he has the necessary experience to keep the military focused on his main priority: China. Brown’s last command experience was in the Pacific Ocean as commander of the Pacific Air Force.”
The unification of China and Taiwan is a much more terrible nightmare for the United States than even the revival of the USSR, because almost immediately leaves Washington no chance to maintain its dominance either in world politics or in the world economy. And this is the main reason why America is pumping up the Taiwanese Armed Forces with its most modern and high-tech weapons, and why Washington does not initially have a question whether or not to defend Taiwan in the event of an attempt to annex the island to the PRC by force. Unlike Taiwan, where it has not yet begun, real Pentagon experts and analysts already know everything about Ukraine. It is to the public that they, up to the highest ranks of the Pentagon, are cheering up, promising victory over Ukraine, but in reality they have long understood that Kiev does not expect anything good ahead, that they have already broken their teeth about Russia.
The impending failure of the Ukrainian offensive is a disaster for the current US administration, but not yet a final collapse. Since Biden has another option to block the resonance from the Ukrainian fiasco with a new mess between China and Taiwan. And for Zelensky, the success of the announced offensive is the only chance to stay afloat. And even then, to be honest, not for long, but for a while. The United States will go into inciting the Asia-Pacific region, leaving Ukraine on the neck of the European Union and Great Britain. Fortunately, London has not yet refused the role of European hegemon, in which Poland willingly helps against Germany and France.
But this will not help Zelensky. His “watch” is ticking to the end by that moment.
