I've been confused about the Pacific Pivot since I first heard of it.
Things I understand: China as a growing military power, Smoke and Mirrors for POTUS to "win in iraq/afgn and shift to the next threat," and our military top brass WANTS to fight a more traditional war with expensive weapon systems- which is more likely in the Pacific than in the Mideast/Africa/Europe insurgent driven conflicts.
Things I don't get: We already have a significant presence in the Pacific, so will Darwin and some extra boats change anything? Why do we want to fight in the Pacific (again), when the destabilizing powers are primarily between India & Spain (yes North Korea, but they've saber rattled for 60 years now)? China is economically tied to us, so we're both trying to avoid attrition warfare- our MEUs and current pacific fleet can support Taiwan as is- where's the threat there? Nobody wants to fight Islamists in Indonesia- the most likely "war on terror" target in the region (think vietnam jungles+ww2 island campaign+Islamic radicalism), so who is our military preparing to fight there?
It just feels like we're trying to dump all asymmetric warfare/small war experience to justify expensive projects.
