Get ready for war with China because Obama broke USA says senator

Australia needs to increase its military self-reliance so that it can approach China from “a position of strength” and prepare for the possibility that the rising power could go to war with the United States, new Liberal senator Jim Molan has said.

The retired army major-general used his maiden speech to the Senate on Wednesday to stake out his position as a defence hawk, calling for long-term investment in military readiness and linked his call specifically to China’s challenge to a US that is in “relative decline” in defence terms.

And he took a swipe against other US allies in Europe and Asia - apparently singling out Japan and South Korea - for under-investing in their militaries.

Senator Molan said the US was in decline because of “16 years of war, eight years of President Obama and seven years of crippling sequestration”.

That meant the US could not come to the aid of all its allies in all situations. But “many US allies, from the Baltic around the world to the Sea of Japan, seem to have retreated into complacent dependency, based on the myth of infinite US power and resolve, as a reason for underinvesting in their own defence self-reliance”, he said.

[link to www.smh.com.au]