I don’t think you quite understand what you’re saying, but first off, in the extremely unlikely event the U.S. degenerates into a civil war, our economic partners are going to go down the shitter right after because all of a sudden, 25% of the world’s economy just decided to commit mass suicide. Nobody, not China, not Russia, not Europe,
nobody is going to be in a position to hang in there...except for possibly North Korea and Cuba, but even they’re in deep shit because the aid and such they rely upon is suddenly going to vanish.
As far as “abandoning Asia” goes, no. If anything we’re actually strengthening our position. I take it you’re not familiar with “The Quad”, which is the U.S., Japan, Australia, and India. Actually, no, since you seem to think Australia is part of NATO I’m going to go out on a limb and say you’re definitely not familiar with it.
See, while Japan and Australia are smaller than the U.S., they’re no slouches when it comes to being players in the region. Japan has the world’s third-largest navy, er, Maritime Defense Force, and Australia is no slouch (its long running fits over defense procurement notwithstanding...) either. And India? Well, they may not be flashy but they’ve got a population almost as big as China’s (one that
isn’t facing the sudden decline due to idiotic policies at attempted population control), a rapidly developing economy, a fair sized military, and, oh yeah, whatever faults they have they’re also a democracy. And they, too, have an ax or three to grind with China.
And then you have the other countries in the region as well...South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore...honestly, China really isn’t in a great position and simply abandoning Asia would not only be a mistake on the order of Japan bombing Pearl Harbor, but also would mean that our bilateral defense treaties are meaningless, and
nobody would trust our word again. You alluded to this with Britain and France re: Poland, but what you fail to understand is that the reason we are the unquestioned leader of the free world is that, when push truly came to shove, we
didn’t abandon our friends. For all of our faults, it’s our willingness to stand up to aggressors that allows us and our allies to sleep well at night, because when the chips are down, the world knows America will ultimately step in to save the day.