You say defend… I say maintain peace and stability… Definite gray area there…
I am in the high Navajo Nations. You deserve a giffy but I can’t send.
Somebody help me here.
It would go like this:
What does McEnroe say when he is ticked off?
What a lot of people fail to grasp. Putin is old and may push the envelope, it may seem a rational decision to him. That’s the true danger. He’s 70 and feeling his oats power wise
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This is indeed very, very, very concerning.
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I do not know this for sure. But I suspect that Act (or resolution) was passed to enable arms sales to Taiwan. We are the biggest arms dealer in the world.
FWIW, Wiki seems to back me up and contains a bunch of interesting info:
From 1954 to 1979, the United States was a partner with Taiwan in a mutual defense treaty. The United States remains one of the main supporters of Taiwan and, through the Taiwan Relations Act passed in 1979, has continued selling arms and providing military training to the Armed Forces. This situation continues to be an issue for the People’s Republic of China, which considers US involvement disruptive to the stability of the region. In January 2010, the US announced its intention to sell $6.4 billion worth of military hardware to Taiwan. As a consequence, the PRC warned that its co-operation with the US on international and regional issues could suffer and that the companies involved, namely Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and United Technologies, could face Chinese sanctions.
When I was at USARPAC, Taiwan was among the largest purchasers of state of the art US military hardware. They were a BIG customer.
As that wikipedia article correctly states, we haven’t had a mutual defense treaty with Taiwan since we broke off formal diplomatic relations and recognized the PRC in 1979.
But, thanks to the Taiwan Relations Act, we can continue to sell them tons of weapons and conduct various types of military to military engagements.
Gray area… Or grey area… 
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Curious, do these “sales” actually ever happen , as in real $$$ being paid, or does “in kind services” come into play ?
YES!!!
Here’s more on that:
To his credit, Donald Trump’s administration was a HUGE Taiwan arms dealer!
So they write a check to Treasury dept for 9 billion or
the company’s that manufacture the systems ?
There’s a program called “Foreign Military Sales” administered by DOD and State Department agencies
That said, it is also possible for US arms suppliers to do “Direct Commercial Sales.”
Thanks; I hope the Ukraine deals were 100% cash up front; beginning to think
they may not be making future payments if on an installment plan.
I do enjoy reading everyone’s notes. Helps me get an understanding of both sides. And not to bust up a good debate but I am thankful we have not committed any of our brave sons and daughters to fight in Ukraine.
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I agree but at the same time I feel terribly for those people that just wanted to be free of communism…hope Putin strokes out tonight!
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Russia isn’t communist.