Brian, read the SMH article - here it is

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/the-age-of-the-carnivores-is-upon-us-china-russia-and-their-war-machine-20241118-p5krgh.html


There's no point at all in fruitlessly commenting on something before
actually reading it.

Here's the text:


"The world is “made up of herbivores and carnivores”, French President
Emmanuel Macron said in a speech this month. Europe, he said, was a
plant-eater. And the meat-eaters are circling.

Until now, most Western nations have been content to live peaceful
lives with minimal military capability because the biggest of them has
offered to protect the others by maintaining a war-like vigilance.
That, of course, was the US.

Under the eagle’s wing, post-war Europe and Japan became so relaxed
that they adopted a pacifist stance. They relinquished any effective
offensive combat capability to the point where they were declared to
be the world’s first “postmodern” states, together with New Zealand,
which sheltered behind Australia, in the categorisation by the British
diplomat Robert Cooper. These pacifists were full herbivores.

But almost all Western democracies, including Australia and Canada,
also allowed themselves to stand down. Their statecraft and their
defence forces operated on the assumption that war between the great
powers was an artefact of history and if anything went wrong, America
would deal with it. “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night
only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf,”
according to a quote attributed to George Orwell. America was the
rough man of the West.

The West’s enemies fell into a sullen survival mode. But they did not
lose their appetites for the red meat of history – the urge to attack,
butcher and digest the territories of their neighbours.

That era is over. America’s will has wilted, and its enemies sense
opportunity. When Syria’s Bashar al-Assad crossed Barack Obama’s “red
line” against chemical weapons use in 2013, and Obama did nothing in
response, it whetted the appetites of the four greatest predators of
the international system. Russia annexed Crimea the next year and
still Obama did nothing meaningful, so the annexation became merely
the prelude to Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Emergency workers extinguish a fire following a Russian rocket attack
in Lviv, Ukraine, on Sunday.
Emergency workers extinguish a fire following a Russian rocket attack
in Lviv, Ukraine, on Sunday.Credit:Ukrainian Emergency Service/AP

China activated its salami-slicing encroachments to seize territories
that were also claimed by half a dozen of its neighbours and launched
the world’s greatest military build-up since World War II. North Korea
revived its ambition to conquer Seoul. Iran’s revolution negotiated
with the West over its nuclear program while continuing to arm its
proxies against Israel.

These four predators have been grouped under a new acronym: CRINKs,
for China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. America’s Politico outlet
dubbed it “the new axis of evil”.

Today, 1000 days since Vladimir Putin ordered his forces to strike
Kyiv, we can see clearly that history has entered a new phase. These
four have come together in a war of territorial conquest. Russia’s war
on Ukraine has become a carnivores’ picnic.

China has become the main financier of the Russian economy by stepping
up to buy 215 billion euros’ worth of its fossil fuel exports since
the invasion began, according to the Finnish non-profit Centre for
Research on Energy and Clean Air. China is the “decisive enabler” of
Russia’s war effort, according to a NATO summit communique, by
supplying industrial machinery and semiconductors and other
technology.

Iran has given Russia 8000 Shahed drones, each carrying a payload of
50 kilograms of explosives, and has delivered the first of hundreds of
promised Fath 360 ballistic missiles, according to the Pentagon. North
Korea has sent 13,000 containers of weaponry to Russia, including 8
million artillery shells, missiles and anti-tank rockets, according to
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.

And now North Korea has ordered at least 12,000 of its combat troops
to Russia. Just over two weeks ago, on November 4, they engaged in
their first firefight with Ukrainian troops, according to the US State
Department. They are the first foreign combat forces to enter the war.

In a speech on Friday, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, urged his
troops to “go all out” in fighting Ukraine, according to Pyongyang’s
news service. Over the weekend, The Financial Times published a
Ukrainian intelligence report that North Korea has given Russia “some
50 domestically produced 170mm M1989 self-propelled howitzers and 20
updated 240mm multiple launch rocket systems”.

CRINKs is no longer just an acronym. It now describes a group of
nations engaged jointly in waging a war of aggression.

In an apparent response to the North Korean entry into the war, Joe
Biden has released Ukraine from a key US-imposed restraint, it emerged
on Monday. Until now, America supplied its HIMARS – high mobility
artillery rocket system – to Ukraine on condition that it not be used
against targets inside Russia. This was imposed to limit escalation.
Biden now has freed Kyiv to hit Russia directly with a system capable
of firing missiles up to 300 kilometres into its territory. Britain
and France are expected to lift similar restraints on the missiles
they supplied to Ukraine.

Wesley Clark, a former US army general and commander of the NATO
forces, told CNN that this newfound Ukrainian freedom is “too little,
too late” materially to change the course of the war but that it would
be a useful bargaining chip in any ceasefire negotiations.

A central question for the global jungle is what the incoming US
president will do. Will Donald Trump support the US allies – mostly
herbivores – confronting aggression, or will he side with America’s
traditional enemies – the carnivores?

World leaders issue warning to Trump on trade, but not by name
The US is increasingly an unpredictable and unreliable protector.
While the CRINKs moved earlier to take advantage, the herbivores
finally have got the message. In the past few years, US allies have
started to sharpen their claws and bare their fangs. In Macron’s
metaphor, he wants the herbivores of Europe to, at the very least,
become omnivores, he said.

US allies have stepped up their defence budgets and increasingly
started to herd together for protection. Australia’s Northern
Territory showcased the latest development in this trend at the
weekend when Japanese troops joined US forces for the annual US Marine
rotation. This is set to be an annual event.

The meat-eaters are hunting in a pack. The eagle is no longer a
reliable protector. The age of carnivores is upon us."