If you live in Taiwan, it’s time to worry

Taiwan needs to worry about American reliability. Unlike Afghanistan, where the United States had committed its forces for two decades, Taiwan has no U.S. forces and no assurance that the United States will come to their defense if attacked by China.

The United States has a bad habit of walking out on its allies and friends. The list is long. It includes Vietnam and Cambodia, Iraq and Afghanistan, and Iran. In all of those cases, one way or another, the United States, for its own reasons, took a hike.

Obama pulled U.S. troops from Iraq, opening the door to Iran. While the United States has a few thousand soldiers still in Iraq in training and advisory capacities, they’re under siege and it’s unlikely the United States will protect them. …

The primary issue is U.S. reliability. South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan all depend directly on the United States. Without its support, none of them can avoid war—in Korea, the threat from Pyongyang and in Japan and Taiwan, the threat from Beijing. …

Stability in the Pacific depends on strong and visible U.S. resolve and U.S.-led deterrence. That seems to be at risk right now.

The signals coming from Washington are anything but positive.