Defense Secretary Robert Gates plans to reassure anxious allies in Asia this week that the U.S. military will maintain a strong presence in the region despite budget pressures at home, officials said. ...
Gates, who departs May 31 on his global tour, will seek "to assure the region that we will maintain our commitments in the region and that we have both the capability in addition to the will to do so," the official said.
It helps that while our Army is heavily committed in Iraq and Afghanistan, our Navy and Air Force--which would be the main combatants in the western Pacific--are not similarly committed. We have the power to prevail.
It is important to reassure neighboring countries nervous about China's rising military power because as long as they have confidence in our power, they will resist China. But if we fail to reassure them about the balance of power, they will make deals with China to accommodate rather than resist Chinese power.
Gates can offer words of reassurance. But that only works if our allies also see the physical assets capable of backing those words and feel the determination to use those assets from our leadership.
