by WorldTribune Staff, December 14, 2025 Real World News
Because the U.S. “has skin in the game” with citizens living in Guam and the Northern Marianas, America can be considered an Indo-Pacific nation, retired Army Gen. Charles Flynn said on Thursday.
“We can’t forget about this part of the homeland,” Flynn said in an address to the Gold Institute for International Strategy.
Flynn, whose brother retired Gen. Michael Flynn is chairman of the Gold Institute, noted that communist China continues to flex its economic muscles via its Belt and Road Initiative which coerces small nations such as Cambodia, Laos, Bhutan, and Myanmar to take high-interest construction loans knowing they won’t be paid back.
The Xi Jinping regime in Beijing’s coercive campaign has created a dangerous security situation, Flynn said.
When the counties can’t repay the loans, China swoops in and assumes control over the projects, whether a port facility or an airfield. That also means access to the countries’ information technology systems or electrical grids.
“We have one hell of a time getting them out of these small countries,” said Flynn.
“That is why it’s really important for the United States to maintain relations with Vietnam, Thailand and India, the sort of bookends of countries in South Asia,” he said. “And by the way, Thailand is a treaty ally of the United States.”
In his concluding remarks, Gen. Flynn noted that “the enemy is right here. Who is fueling it? China, 100 percent. [The warfare being conducted is not conventional] but ‘unrestricted warfare’ which essentially means warfare conducted without rules.”
“We don’t have a manual for how to defeat unrestricted warfare.”
“This is a serious time,” he emphasized noting that most Americans are unaware of the nuclear and missile threats their nation faces. He stated as an example that a U.S. aircraft carrier was forced to make emergency evasive maneuvers in recent months to avoid an incoming Houthi missile.
Panel moderators at the Gold Institute event included independent investigative journalist Lara Logan and Kahr Arms Group CEO Justin Moon, who challenged conventional D.C. foreign policy wisdom in their personal remarks.
Moon, for example, called Russia the key to easing tensions in East Asia and proposed that U.S. policy shift to prioritizing engagement with Russia commercially to diminish the looming Sino-Russia threat to Taiwan and the “first island chain” (extending from Korea and Japan through Taiwan, the Philippines, and parts of Indonesia) which serves as a key defensive line for the U.S. and its allies in Asia.
Retired South Korean Gen. Leem Ho-young, a former deputy commander of the U.S.-Korea Combined Forces Command, said most discussions about possible military action in the Indo-Pacific seem to focus on whether China will invade neighboring Taiwan.
“It seems like they don’t really discuss much about the threat that exists on the Korean peninsula because the two Koreas — the North and the South — are charging up,” Leem said.
He said President Donald Trump — whom he called “The Global Peacemaker” — will likely prevent any cross-strait invasion of Taiwan.
Leem, who said he spent most of his military career along the tense Demilitarized Zone, noted: “For 50 kilometers to the north and 50 kilometers to the south [of the DMZ], there are about 1 million soldiers there pointing their guns at each other.”
While North Korean officials mouth communist slogans, Leem said it would be more accurate to call the country a feudal dynasty. The Kim family has run the country since its founding in 1948 by Kim Il-Sung.
Kim Jong-Un, Kim Il-Sung’s grandson, has signaled that his chosen heir is his daughter, Kim Ju-Ae, who is believed to be 12 or 13. That could be a problem for stability in North Korea, Leem said, where women are looked down upon.
Kim Jong-Un smokes four packs of cigarettes a day and drinks up to 10 bottles of wine daily, Leem noted, adding that his father and grandfather died as a result of bad hearts.
“It’s in his bloodline. It wouldn’t be surprising at all if he dropped dead today,” he said. “If that happens, there’s going to be a power struggle in North Korea. The power will be given to the person with a gun. China will pick a faction and support that faction.”
Leem said he wouldn’t be surprised if the other side in a North Korean internal dispute reaches out to South Korea or even the U.S. for backing.
“If that happens and there are two different military factions in conflict in North Korea, this could lead to a conflict between China, which represents communism, and the U.S. and South Korea, which represent the powers of freedom,” he said. “The issues surrounding Taiwan will seem small by comparison.”
(View the Gold Institute event in its entirety here.)
Generals call East Asia most critical flashpoint, but for U.S., the ‘enemy is right here’ added by Editor Two on
View all posts by Editor Two →