Compass Points - Subic Pier

Rebuilding the national defense.

Compass Points - Subic Pier

Rebuilding the national defense.

September 18, 2024

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As the US and the Philippines build a new pier at Subic Bay, one commentator observes the condition of the US military and her allies with alarm.

As part of a broader effort to respond to China's growing aggression in the South China Sea / West Philippine Sea, the US and the Philippines are working together to build a new naval pier at Subic Bay. Before the Philippines evicted the US military from Subic Bay in 1992, the naval port was a thriving hub for US military forces in Asia. In recent years, as the Philippines has grown more and more concerned about China, the US and Philippines have begun to rebuild their relationship and rebuild their capabilities. USNI News reports on the new pier:

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The U.S. will support Manila’s plan to build a new naval pier at a Philippine naval base in Subic Bay.

A 15-meter by 155-meter finger pier is set to be constructed at Naval Operating Base Subic, homeport of the Philippine Navy’s patrol vessels and frigates. According to the contract, the planning for the pier is under foreign military financing for the Armed Forces of the Philippines and will be in support of Naval Sea Systems Command’s International Fleet Support Program Office, known as PMS 326. Construction of the pier itself will be conducted by the Subic Drydock Corporation, a Philippine company.

-- USNI News

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The construction of the new Subic Bay pier is welcome news, but it is not the only thing that needs rebuilding. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Walter Russell Mead issues a powerful review of the report from the Commission on the National Defense Strategy which warns the US military is not prepared to respond to growing global dangers.

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The bipartisan report details a devastating picture of political failure, strategic inadequacy and growing American weakness in a time of rapidly increasing danger. The U.S. faces the “most serious and most challenging” threats since 1945, including the real risk of “near-term major war.” The report warns: “The nation was last prepared for such a fight during the Cold War, which ended 35 years ago. It is not prepared today.”

Worse, “China and Russia’s ‘no-limits’ partnership, formed in February 2022 just days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has only deepened and broadened to include a military and economic partnership with Iran and North Korea. . . . This new alignment of nations opposed to U.S. interests creates a real risk, if not likelihood, that conflict anywhere could become a multitheater or global war.”

Should such a conflict break out, “the Commission finds that the U.S. military lacks both the capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can deter and prevail in combat.”

To summarize, World War III is becoming more likely in the near term, and the U.S. is too weak either to prevent it or, should war come, to be confident of victory.

-- Walter Russell Mead, WSJ "U.S. Shrugs as World War III Approaches - A devastating report on global threats and American weakness is met with indifference."

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Mead emphasizes that, "This is not, or should not be, a partisan issue. No recent president and no party escapes responsibility for our current plight. Red and blue America will suffer equally if the global slide toward war continues unchecked."

Mead concludes with a call for all Americans to wake up to the dangers.

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The prophet Ezekiel spoke about the duty of the watchman on the city wall to sound the trumpet when enemies approach. The Commission on the National Defense Strategy has fulfilled its mission. But judging from the indifference with which its report has been greeted, more and louder trumpets need to sound. Not since the 1930s have Americans been this profoundly indifferent as a great war assembles in the world outside, and not since Paul Revere traversed the dark country lanes of Massachusetts have Americans more urgently needed to rouse themselves from sleep.

-- Walter Russell Mead

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Compass Points thanks Walter Russell Mead for his powerful warning in the Wall Street Journal about the state of the US and the US military.

After years of feckless foreign policy and a drawn down and depleted military, the US now faces a world of emboldened and energized enemies. In these dangerous times, when the Nation is at peril, the Marine Corps has always been "most ready when the Nation is least ready." Is the Marine Corps today 'most ready'? Sadly no. The Marine Corps is not even mostly ready. While the fireteams and squads of warfighting Marines are, as usual, eager for any challenge, the Marine Corps as an organization is under-strength, under equipped, and under prepared for the missions it may be called upon to execute tomorrow.

Time to rebuild.

It is time to build the pier at Subic Bay. Make it long and make it strong. Build it today. And it is also time to rebuild all three combined arms Marine Expeditionary Forces, one on the east coast, one on the west coast, and one forward based in Japan. There is not a moment to lose. The crisis is here, knocking at the door.

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USNI News - 09/17/2024

U.S. to Assist in Building New Naval Pier at Subic Bay

By Aaron-Matthew Lariosa

https://news.usni.org/2024/09/17/u-s-to-assist-in-building-new-naval-pier-at-subic-bay?utm_campaign=dfn-ebb&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sailthru

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WSJ - 09/16/2024

U.S. Shrugs as World War III Approaches

A devastating report on global threats and American weakness is met with indifference.

By Walter Russell Mead

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/u-s-shrugs-as-world-war-iii-approaches-devastating-bipartisan-report-716bda71