The Prophecy is much more than seeing into the future. For the Prophecy sees without the element of time. For the Prophecy sees what is, what was, and what always shall be. 11:11 LLC
At a meeting with Russia’s defense industry and top military brass, Russian President Vladimir Putin extolled the progress made under Moscow’s sweeping military modernization programs: “the latest weapon systems and military hardware are intensively arriving for the Army and the Navy, the potential of the nuclear triad has strengthened substantially and the Navy has expanded its combat capabilities…” Putin added that “It is important to keep the required pace of producing advanced strike systems for the purposes of their employment and testing in the course of intensive combat training.”
The composition of Russia’s military has changed significantly in recent decades, with several of its service branches undergoing a post-Soviet transition into a lean, heavily modernized fighting force. But if there is one aspect of Russian military planning that’s unlikely to shift anytime soon, it’s Moscow’s continued reliance on tactical nuclear weapons as a core deterrent against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Here is the extent of Russia’s tactical nuclear arsenal, and how Moscow plans to use it in the event of a major armed conflict with the west.
It should be noted that there is no universally accepted distinction between “tactical” and “strategic” weapons. There is at least some legal precedent, however: for arms control purposes, Russia and the U.S. typically define non-strategic nuclear weapons as those with a striking range of less than 5,500 km. More generally, a strategic warhead is understood to be a weapon used against infrastructure like factories, energy production facilities, cities, etc. to target the underlying sources of an enemy’s military power. On the other hand, a tactical warhead is used on a battlefield to affect immediate consequences in an ongoing military engagement.
As Putin acknowledged at his recent defense conference, a great chunk of these tactical weapons are operated by the Navy. “The latest weapon systems and military hardware are intensively arriving for the Army and the Navy, the potential of the nuclear triad has strengthened substantially and the Navy has expanded its combat capabilities, especially with warships carrying Kalibr cruise missiles,” he said. Notable carriers for these weapons include the new Yasen nuclear-powered cruise missile submarines and Admiral Gorshkov class frigates. The Air Force’s Tu-22M3M modernized bomber and modified MiG-31K interceptor carry the hypersonic, nuclear-capable Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missile, posing a credible threat against high-profile NATO military assets like carrier strike groups (CSG’s). The Russian Ground Forces’ recent Iskander-M short-range ballistic missile system can also accept nuclear warheads.
So, what does the Kremlin need all these nuclear warheads and advanced systems for?
Citing Russia’s supposed strategy of “escalate to de-escalate,” some observers have inferred offensive intent behind Russia’s tactical nukes; according to this line of reasoning, the Kremlin can seize a disputed territory and then quickly launch a preemptive tactical nuclear strike against nearby NATO assets to force the west into a diplomatic settlement. But, as I explained in-depth in a previous article, there is no evidence that the Kremlin is entertaining any such grand plans of conquest; the concerns behind “escalate to de-escalate” have been greatly overblown.
The underlying purpose of Russia’s tactical nuclear arsenal is rather more mundane but no less impactful. The Kremlin, with its relatively limited resources, is unlikely to win in a prolonged, conventional, continental war with NATO. Thus, Russian military doctrine sees tactical nuclear warheads as a hedge against NATO–not only a deterrent but one of Russia’s only means of leveling the playing field in the mutually undesired event of an all-out war. As costly as these stockpiles are to store and maintain, it would be exponentially more expensive– and ultimately futile, given the financial disparities between the two sides– for Russia to try to match NATO’s conventional strength. Tactical nuclear warheads are, and will likely continue to be, a cost-efficient way for Moscow to offset its disadvantage in this domain.
PMark Episkopos is a national security reporter for The National Interest.
In this message, Muqtada al-Sadr, while congratulating the victory of Bashar al-Assad, stated that the honor of Syria and its dignity is the honor of the Syrians and their dignity.
The head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, also sent a message on Saturday night congratulating Bashar al-Assad on his victory in the Syrian presidential election and called for the expansion of relations.
“Bashar al-Assad has won the presidential election with 95.1 percent of the vote,” Syrian Parliament Speaker Hamouda Sabbagh told a news conference on Friday morning.
According to the speaker of the Syrian parliament, out of 14 million 239 thousand Syrians who participated in the presidential election, 13 million 540 thousand 360 voted for Bashar al-Assad.
Mahmoud Marie and Abdullah Salum Abdullah, the other Syrian presidential candidates, received 470,276 votes (equivalent to 3.3% of votes) and 213,968 votes (equivalent to 1.5% of votes), respectively.
The speaker of the Syrian parliament announced a 78% turnout in the presidential election.
The Syrian presidential election was held last Wednesday with three candidates competing and It was well received by the Syrian people.
With the announcement of the victory of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the recent election, the Syrian people celebrated in different cities.
Ibrahim Al-Amine, editor of the pro-Hezbollah Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, told Hezbollah’s Al-Manar network over the weekend that during the 11-days of fighting in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, officers from the IRGC, Hamas and Hezbollah set up a joint military operations center in Beirut.
The commander of the IRGC’s overseas Quds Force, Esmail Ghaani, visited the operations center twice during the military hostilities, according to Al-Amine.
The newspaper editor claimed Hezbollah sent weapons and ammunition to Gaza and “moved a number of Palestinian resistance officers out of the Strip during the aggression,” according to Al-Manar.
Palestinian factions were also provided with data on the movements of Israeli forces, Al-Amine asserted, asserting drones were used to prevent Israel from springing an “ambush” on terror operatives along the border.
He also said if Israel “expanded its aggression, the entire axis of resistance would have confronted it,” referring to Iran and its regional proxies.
Al-Amine’s comments came days after Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, said Hamas coordinated with the IRGC and Hezbollah throughout the fighting, in a press conference quoted by Israel’s Kan news.
Sinwar also said there was “full coordination between the resistance in Lebanon and resistance in Gaza,” referring to several rockets fired at Israel from Lebanon during the conflict.
The Israeli military blamed several of the rocket attacks from Lebanon on Palestinian factions in the country, not the Hezbollah terror group. However, it is unlikely that terrorists in southern Lebanon would be able to fire rockets without at least the tacit approval of the Iran-backed militia, which maintains a tight degree of control over southern Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Ghaani on Saturday issued fresh threats against Israel.
“I’d advise all Zionists to go back and repurchase the houses they have sold in Europe, the US and elsewhere to come to the Palestinian territories before the houses become more expensive than today,” he said, according to the Tasnim news agency.
During the conflict in Gaza, known in Israel as “Operation Guardian of the Walls,” Iranian state television reported that Ghaani spoke by phone with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh to laud the Islamist terror organization’s attacks on Israel.
The fighting in the Strip, which erupted on May 10 after Hamas fired rockets at Jerusalem amid escalating Israeli-Palestinian tensions in the city, ended last week with a ceasefire between Israel and the Gaza-ruling terror group.
Thirteen people were killed in Israel, all but one of them civilians, including a 5-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl. Some 357 people in Israel were wounded. Terror groups in Gaza fired more than 4,300 rockets at Israel during the fighting.
Nope The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said at least 243 Palestinians were killed, including 66 children and teens, with 1,910 people wounded. It does not differentiate between terror group members and civilians. The Israeli military maintained that it killed some 225 terrorist operatives and that the Palestinian death toll was in fact considerably higher than was reported. It also said some of the civilian fatalities were caused by Hamas rockets falling short and landing in the Strip.
Although Hejazi reportedly died of a heart condition, IRGC Quds Force head praises him as “martyr” who helped develop missile tech against Israel.
Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members, led by Quds Force leader Esmail Ghaani, commemorated the Iranian precision-guided missile expert Mohammad Hossein-Zadeh Hejazi over the weekend while threatening Israel.Hejazi was born in 1956 and reportedly died of a heart condition in April. According to the Tasnim News Agency’s defense group, Ghaani said in a speech commemorating the 40th day of the martyrdom of Maj.-Gen. Hejazi: “He stood up and symbolized the services rendered by martyr Qasem Soleimani at such a time – the fierce resistance of the Palestinians against the Zionist regime.”This statement, first of all, refers to Hejazi as a martyr, like former IRGC Quds Force commander Soleimani, who was killed by the US in January 2020. Ghaani took over the Quds Force when Soleimani was killed.Ghaani has connected Hejazi’s death to the war against Israel launched by Hamas on May 10.“In the first three days of the Palestinian war with the Zionist regime, we fired missiles at the occupied territories as much as the entire 22-day war,” he said, comparing it to the 2008-2009 conflict between Israel and Hamas.His point was that “more than 3,000 missiles fired by the resistance into the occupied territories are produced in the same geography.” It ended up being more than 4,000 rockets and missiles. He claimed that Palestinian children can look to this war as an example of how they will retake all of Israel and that the land is no longer well controlled by the “Zionist regime.”He said that he advised all “Zionists go back and buy your own houses again before the houses you sold in Europe and America and elsewhere – and came to the land of Palestine – become more expensive than they are today.”This real estate messaging has also been made by Hezbollah in recent days.On May 25, Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah said “Israelis have two citizenships, and their bags are packed and ready. Security will make them remain or leave. So they started saying, ‘Let’s leave. There’s no army or leadership to protect us.’ What happened recently in the ‘48 lands [of Israel] was a big shock to Israelis.”This idea that Israel is temporary, that time stopped in 1948 and that Palestine will rise completely as a one-state solution is a message that Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, via the Muslim Brotherhood, have sent to their allies in the West – who have shouted “from the river to the sea” to claim Israel will be destroyed.It is common among some on the extreme Left and the Islamist Right to make this claim. Iran and its allies have been pushing it as well.Hezbollah, Hamas and the IRGC in Iran increasingly coordinate messaging and operations. It is plausible that Iran and Hezbollah helped Hamas plan the May 10 war. Iran precisely spelled out Hamas’s plans prior to May 10.Ghaani also said that Hamas was able to continue to fire long-range missiles up until the day of the ceasefire on May 21 with Israel. “The Palestinian resistance acted in such a way that from the first day of the Zionist regime, they did not give up the war until they imposed these conditions on the Zionists.”He said that “resistance” is the answer and that Palestinians had made impressive gains. “The Zionist regime must think about the day when it will leave this land in humiliation, and our brothers in Palestine must plan and act wisely for that day from today.”He sees the recently fought “12-day war” as a turning point.The Quds Force head said that Hejazi “gave his life” for this mission, implying that Hejazi’s death may not have been natural.
On his arrival, the prime minister was received by Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Nadeem Raza, and Director General Strategic Plans Division Lieutenant General Nadeem Zaki Manj. During the visit, the prime minister was apprised of various facets of Pakistan’s Strategic Programme.
The prime minister appreciated and acknowledged the untiring efforts of all the scientists and personnel associated with Pakistan’s Strategic Programme and expressed full confidence in Pakistan’s nuclear capability and protection to strengthen the national defence.
Meanwhile, Imran Khan commended efforts of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in crossing historic milestone of Rs4,000 billion in any year the first time ever, as during July-May, the collections stood at Rs4,143 billion.
In a tweet, the prime minister said, “I commend efforts of FBR in crossing historic milestone of Rs4,000b in any year for first time ever. During Jul-May our collections reached Rs4,143b and still counting – 18 percent higher than same period last year. This reflects broad-based economic revival spurred by government policies.”
Prime Minister Imran Khan also took notice of complaint lodged by an expatriate Pakistani on the Citizens Portal regarding the transfer of a plot in a housing society.
According to the Prime Minister Office, action has been taken against officers of Islamabad Land Revenue on the directions of the prime minister. The circular registrar office had not addressed the complaint of the expatriate Pakistani.
On the directions of Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit, the chief commissioner Islamabad held an inquiry into the complaint and a notification has been issued by his office regarding suspension and dismissal of relevant officers.
The deputy registrar Cooperative Societies, Islamabad has been immediately removed from his office and the chief commissioner has also recommended the Interior Ministry for the suspension of circular registrar. The inspector of cooperative housing societies and clerk of the circular registrar office have been dismissed from the service.
A show cause notice has also been issued to the housing society concerned and its bank accounts frozen. At the direction of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit, the chief commissioner inquired into the complaints.
Accordingly, the chief commissioner’s Office issued notifications of suspension and dismissal of the officers concerned.
Meanwhile, members of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly called on Imran Khan. The members included Ali Shan Soni, Ali Raza Bukhari, Saghir Chughtai, former speaker Anwarul Haq and former minister Shehzad Chaudhry who announced to joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), expressing full confidence in the leadership, vision and policies of the prime minister.
The AJK lawmakers said that the prudent and coordinated strategy by which Imran Khan has taken the country out of the financial crisis and pursued Kashmir policy at national and international for a is appreciable.
“The fight is very admirable. We were inspired by the vision and practical steps of PTI and decided to join the party so that we could further the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan,” they maintained.
The meeting was also attended by Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, Minister for Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan Affairs Ali Amin Gandapur, Saifullah Niazi, Amir Kayani, Arshad Dad, Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry and others.
NEW YORK NEWS by: Eric Snitil, James Battaglia Posted: May 29, 2021 / 06:21 PM EDT / Updated: May 29, 2021 / 06:26 PM EDT
LIVINGSTON COUNTY, N.Y. (WROC) — Residents of Livingston County, New York felt a 2.4-magnitude earthquake Thursday evening, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, which studies landscapes, natural resources, and natural hazards that threaten the country.
It happened at 8:41 p.m., and many in the region felt the shake. Livingston County Sheriff Thomas Dougherty tweeted about the earthquake just before 9:30 p.m., saying his office was receiving multiple calls from concerned residents.
Schumer, Gillibrand urge USDA to fund more NYS dairy farmers According to Eric Snitil, the chief meteorologist at NEWS10’s sister station in Rochester, earthquakes under 3.0 magnitude are difficult for the general public to notice. However, because Thursday’s quake occurred at a depth of roughly 2.3 miles, a little over 12,000 feet. Anything under 44 miles is considered “shallow.” Shallow quakes have a higher likelihood of being noticed, so even at a 2.4 magnitude, you might feel it.
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On Nov. 8, a 3.6 magnitude earthquake struck Buzzard’s Bay off the coast of New Bedford. Reverberations were felt up to 100 miles away, across Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and parts of Connecticut and New York. News outlets scrambled to interview local residents who felt the ground shake their homes. Seismologists explained that New England earthquakes, while uncommon and usually minor, are by no means unheard of.
It’s sometimes called the Boston Earthquake and sometimes the Cape Ann Earthquake. Its epicenter is thought to have been in the Atlantic Ocean about 25 miles east of Gloucester. Estimates say that it would have registered between 6.0 and 6.3 on the modern Richter scale. It was an occasion to remember as chronicled by John E. Ebel, director of the Weston observatory of Boston College:
“At about 4:30 in the morning on 18 November, 1755, a strong earthquake rocked the New England area. Observers reported damage to chimneys, brick buildings and stone walls in coastal communities from Portland, Maine to south of Boston … Chimneys were also damaged as far away as Springfield, Massachusetts, and New Haven, Connecticut. The earthquake was felt at Halifax, Nova Scotia to the northeast, Lake Champlain to the northwest, and Winyah, South Carolina to the southwest. The crew of a ship in deep water about 70 leagues east of Boston thought it had run aground and only realized it had felt an earthquake after it arrived at Boston later that same day.
“The 1755 earthquake rocked Boston, with the shaking lasting more than a minute. According to contemporary reports, as many as 1,500 chimneys were shattered or thrown down in part, the gable ends of about 15 brick buildings were broken out, and some church steeples ended up tilted due to the shaking. Falling chimney bricks created holes in the roofs of some houses. Some streets, particularly those on manmade ground along the water, were so covered with bricks and debris that passage by horse-drawn carriage was impossible. Many homes lost china and glassware that was thrown from shelves and shattered. A distiller’s cistern filled with liquor broke apart and lost its contents.”
We don’t have many details of the earthquake’s impact here, there being no newspaper in Worcester County at that time. We do know that one man, Christian Angel, working in a “silver” mine in Sterling, was buried alive when the ground shook. He is the only known fatality in these parts. We can assume that, if the quake shook down chimneys in Springfield and New Haven, it did even more damage hereabouts. We can imagine the cries of alarm and the feeling of panic as trees swayed violently, fields and meadows trembled underfoot and pottery fell off shelves and crashed below.
The Boston Earthquake was an aftershock from the gigantic Lisbon Earthquake that had leveled Lisbon, Portugal, a few days before. That cataclysm, estimated as an 8 or 9 on the modern Richter scale, was the most devastating natural catastrophe to hit western Europe since Roman times. The first shock struck on Nov. 1, at about 9 in the morning.
According to one account: ”Suddenly the city began to shudder violently, its tall medieval spires waving like a cornfield in the breeze … In the ancient cathedral, the Basilica de Santa Maria, the nave rocked and the massive chandeliers began swinging crazily. . . . Then came a second, even more powerful shock. And with it, the ornate façade of every great building in the square … broke away and cascaded forward.”
Until that moment, Lisbon had been one of the leading cities in western Europe, right up there with London and Paris. With 250,000 people, it was a center of culture, financial activity and exploration. Within minutes it was reduced to smoky, dusty rubble punctuated by human groans and screams. An estimated 60,000 to 100,000 lost their lives.
Since then, New England has been mildly shaken by quakes from time to time. One series of tremors on March 1, 1925, was felt throughout Worcester County, from Fitchburg to Worcester, and caused a lot of speculation.
What if another quake like that in 1755 hit New England today? What would happen? That question was studied 15 years ago by the Massachusetts Civil Defense Agency. Its report is sobering:
“The occurrence of a Richter magnitude 6.25 earthquake off Cape Ann, Massachusetts … would cause damage in the range of 2 to 10 billion dollars … in the Boston metropolitan area (within Route 128) due to ground shaking, with significant additional losses due to secondary effects such as soil liquefaction failures, fires and economic interruptions. Hundreds of deaths and thousands of major and minor injuries would be expected … Thousands of people could be displaced from their homes … Additional damage may also be experienced outside the 128 area, especially closer to the earthquake epicenter.”
So even if we don’t worry much about volcanoes, we know that hurricanes and tornadoes are always possible. As for earthquakes, they may not happen in this century or even in this millennium, but it is sobering to think that if the tectonic plates under Boston and Gloucester shift again, we could see a repeat of 1755.
Iran Guards Say Not Supporting Any Candidate But ‘Educating’ The Voters
Saturday, 29 May 2021 18:13
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) will not support any particular candidate in Iran’s June 18 presidential elections, the political deputy of IRGC’s commander told a divisional gathering on Saturday. General Yadollah Javani insisted that “as usual” the IRGC would not be involved in an election and would “not support any faction or individual.”
Javani said that anything to the contrary was “a big lie and a serious accusation.” Javani added that the role IRGC plays is to instill hope to boost participation in the election and to set criteria where “our enemies” pursue attacks against the Islamic Republic.
This statement refers to the ideological framework of the elections, where goals pursued by the Islamic Republic, such as confrontation with the United States, Israel and others and the untouchable position of the Supreme Leader, among others, are upheld.
Javani said the IRGC also had a role in deflecting social-media campaigns encouraging an election boycott, and needed to “educate” people about the accomplishments of the Islamic Republic.
Speaking about the role of the president in Iran’s ruling system, Javani said the Supreme Leader says what needs to be said and the president cannot have a different position.
Of seven candidates, two have IRGC experience. Mohsen Rezaei (Rezaee), secretary of the Expediency Council, was the IRGC commander-in-chief from 1980 to 1997. The reformist former vice-president Mohsen Mehralizadeh served at a lower level.
A media network controlled by the IRGC has attacked reformists and President Hassan Rouhani over the past four years and is prominently backing Ebrahim Raeesi (Raisi), the head of Iran’s judiciary.
DF-5B intercontinental ballistic missiles Photo: Fan Lingzhi/GT Facing a serious strategic threat from the US, China was urged to increase the number of nuclear weapons, especially its sea-based nuclear deterrent of intercontinental submarine-launched ballistic missiles, to deter potential military action by US warmongers, Chinese military experts said on Friday, after reports that the US’ new defense budget will modernize its nuclear arsenal to deter China.
Having a nuclear arsenal appropriate to China’s position will help safeguard national security, sovereignty and development interests and establish a more stable and peaceful world order, which will be beneficial for the world, they said.
The US defense budget, set to be sent to Congress on Friday, is expected to include investments in troop readiness, space, and the Pacific Deterrence Initiative aimed at countering China’s military existence in the region, and nuclear weapons technology, Reuters reported on Thursday.
However, Chinese military experts believe that US attempts of increasing military deployment in the Indo-Pacific region will not increase returns for the US as most countries in the region will not allow the flames of war initiated by the US to burn themselves.
The US would buy ships and jets and develop and test hypersonic weapons and other “next-generation” weapons systems to build capabilities to counter Russia and China. The total national security budget will be $753 billion, a 1.7 percent increase over the 2021 figure, Reuters said.
China has kept its defense spending at around 1.3 percent of GDP in recent years, which is far below the average global level of 2.6 percent, data shows. The US, by far the world’s top military spender, has spent about four times that of China in recent years.
Chinese analysts said China has never taken aim at US military spending, nor does China want to engage in any form of arms race with the US.
But the US has applied greater military pressure on China, sending warships and warplanes at an increasing frequency to the South China Sea and Taiwan Straits.
The US is also preparing what US media called its “biggest navy exercise in a generation with 25,000 personnel across 17 time zones,” as it’s preparing for a “possible conflict” with China and Russia.
The US attempted to deepen the militarization of space with its new budget plan, including its investment on future weapons. Considering that the US deems China its top imaginary enemy, China needs to increase the quantity and quality of nuclear weapons, especially submarine-launched ballistic missiles, to effectively safeguard its national security, sovereignty and development interests, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Friday.
Some military experts said China should increase the number of its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), the DF-41, which has the longest operational range among all Chinese ICBMs.
Song said that strengthening sea-based strategic nuclear deterrence is also an important direction for China’s future development, as these weapons are better at stealth and secondary nuclear strikes.
China could use its most advanced submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) to effectively counter the US threat, Song said.
China just commissioned three PLA Navy warships, namely the Changzheng 18, the Dalian and the Hainan, at a naval port in Sanya, South China’s HainanProvince in April. Observers identified the Changzheng 18 as a likely Type 09IV nuclear-powered strategic ballistic missile submarine.
Burning themselves
The US Pacific Deterrence Initiative, created to counter China, focuses on competition in the Indo-Pacific and aims to boost US preparedness in the region by funding radars, satellites and missile systems, according to Reuters.
Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military expert, told the Global Times on Friday that the initiative enables the US to use a variety of spy satellites to conduct reconnaissance and intelligence gathering to provide extensive and accurate intelligence support for US military operations, including joint military operations with its allies, and the US will also use allies, such as US overseas military bases, to deploy more radar systems to guide its weapons.
On the day its budget was sent to Congress, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was expected to meet with India’s Minister of External Affairs, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, as part of India’s first cabinet-level visit to Washington, the Pentagon said.
“The secretary’s meeting with the external affairs minister will continue discussions that the two held in New Delhi in March and will continue the robust bilateral defense and security relationship between our two countries,” the Pentagon said.
Chinese military experts said it’s likely that India would buy more American weapons, have more military drills with the US or deepen its cooperation with the US in military intelligence sharing, and the US will use these in exchange for India’s cooperation for its Indo-Pacific strategy.
But India will have second thoughts on US military deployment on its soil, Song said, noting that weapons and radar deployment involves a country’s sovereignty, and India, which has been claiming to pursue an independent foreign policy, will unlikely give the US a satisfactory answer.
Even if India would like to deepen its military cooperation with the US, certain cooperation such as opening military bases to the US is not an option for India, Song said.
India may not be a very ideal partner, and most of US allies in Asia, including Japan and South Korea, also fear that the flames of war would eventually burn themselves.
In South Korea, protests against US military presence have become louder in the past years, and South Korea will not allow the US to turn Northeast Asia into a battlefield and drag itself into war, nor will it sacrifice its relations with China, observers said.
Zhang Junshe, a senior research fellow at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute, told the Global Times on Friday that Australia is likely to allow the US to deploy more military equipment on its soil, making it the only US friend on its Indo-Pacific strategy.
By doing this, Australia will make itself a target for future military conflicts between the US and other countries, Zhang said, adding that a responsible government which really cares about the interests of its people would never allow it.
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