WRITE OF CENTER
ART HUMPHRIES
COUNTY GOP PRECINCT CHAIR
“A date that will live in infamy.”
If you were to ask a youngster to what that phrase refers, they might say, ‘Oh, that’s 9/11.” That wouldn’t be a bad response, though as we oldsters know, it refers to Japan’s attack on the U.S. on Dec. 7, 1941. Today is Dec. 7.
Long before the Japanese bombers hit our fleet in Pearl Harbor on that Sunday, tensions between Japan and the U.S. had been mounting. The island nation of Japan, isolated from the rest of the world, was and remains in extraordinary need of natural resources, especially oil and steel. I won’t go into detail about Japan’s invasion of China (Manchuria and Nanjing) beginning in the 1930s and their withdrawal from the League of Nations, but it began their rolling tide of hunger for resources and power.
In response, the U.S. gave economic support to China and set economic sanctions against Japan, including trade embargoes on oil, metal and other key goods.
Before the Pearl Harbor attack, FDR and his staff anticipated their strategies for those embargoes would stifle Japan’s expansionism. But the sanctions and other penalties backfired.
As historian Sara Pruitt points out in her research, their efforts only convinced Japan to stand its ground and stirred up the anger of its people against continued Western interference in Asian affairs.
Though applied to different nations, does any of this sound familiar in today’s world?
While our nation’s senior strategists (e.g. NSC) are abundantly sensitive to history, let us manage our expectations about what might be the new administration’s responses to world affairs, while also assuming good and correct intentions. There are knowns and unknowns that are to be considered.
The headlines alone are an indicator; this one from Voice of America: “Tensions High as Chinese Vessels Shadow Vietnam’s Oil, Gas Operations.”
Vietnam has been working with ExxonMobil in developing the Blue Whale gas field off the country’s central coast, which has an estimated reserve of 150 billion cubic meters. That’s estimated to power Hanoi for 20 years. Some might surmise that it was the oil reserves off the Vietnam coast as the key reason the U.S. was in the country.
It took an amazingly grizzly war and a long road to reconciliation to get us to our goal of access to those reserves. But at what price?
As it turns out, looking at our own reserves, did we really need it — the oil, or the war?
We all can rightfully and proudly stand in line as cheerleaders for the fortitude and foresight of Donald Trump in realizing the value and power we hold in the resources in our own lands. We must protect them from all usurpers, foreign and domestic. It is ours to defend and protect.
But what can, should, or will we do to protect our nation from the likes of China, Russia, or Brazil?
Brazil is the world’s eighth-largest economy, and the U.S. is Brazil’s second- largest trading partner. But that government should not be expected to make a choice between preserving a partnership with the U.S. versus China. The huge scale of Chinese trade with Brazil makes this tough to swallow.
President-elect Trump’s promised policies and strategies already seem to be having a favorable effect.
Mr. Trump and his team would be well advised to avoid over-promising on timing, e.g. “Day one, we’ll do this and that ...” They ought to be saying instead, “On the first day, we will begin the process of ...” Manage expectations.
In the meantime, we can track Mr. Trump’s promises. Here are a few:
• Seal the border.
• Stop the migrant crime epidemic, demolish the foreign drug cartels, crush gang violence.
• Make America the dominant energy producer in the world.
• Strengthen and modernize our military.
• Prevent World War III; restore peace in Europe and in the Middle East; and build a great iron dome missile defense shield over our entire country.
• End the weaponization of government against the American people.
• Keep the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
Once in office, you’ll be able to track the Trump Administration’s progress at the White House website.
May God bless America.
Art Humphries is a Kendall County Republican Precinct Chair.
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