This is a series, I on the world, I'm John Bachelor, to the Indo-Pacific, to the

Oceania part of the Indo-Pacific, the island chains and atolls that make up the peoples of the Pacific,

but at the same time an important part of the puzzle ahead of us,

should there be an armed conflict in the Pacific

between the People's Republic of China

and the rest of the planet.

I welcome Cleop Pascal, the Foundation

for the Defense of democracies and Colonel Grant

Nusham United States Marine Corps retired to help me understand a story that at first seems

logical how the U. the US is carefully constructing a defensive

obstacles to China's predation but at the same time a puzzle as to why more is

not being done what What is the problem the Congress is having

with the defense of the Pacific in particular Hawaii? Cleo, wonderful to welcome you back.

I begin by asking the question of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Palau, and Micronesia.

Those three island groupings are critical to the defense of Hawaii. How so?

So this goes back to Japan. If you can remember the battle map during World War II. That whole

section of the Central Pacific was actually under Japanese control for 30 years from the

middle of World War I until the end of World War II.

That massive stretch meant that Japan could come right up close to Hawaii.

After World War II, the US, it was a bit longer complicated, but in the end, the three countries went

independent but signed a very unique defense and security deal with the US that

gave the US strategic denial denial which means that they can block other countries

...