"US looks to South America for security partners" by Lolita C. Baldor | Associated Press, April 29, 2012
ABOARD A US MILITARY AIRCRAFT - In these days of shrinking defense budgets, the United States is looking to its southern neighbors to help monitor and protect the Asia Pacific region in the years ahead.
Traveling to Colombia, Brazil, and Chile last week, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta underscored the importance of those nations as military partners in a region where the US influence in a number of countries is being challenged by China. And as the military relationships grow, defense officials say it can only help US economic and political ties across the continent.
Panetta’s talks with defense leaders from the three
nations also focused on how the United States can support their military
efforts, including those directed at the expanding threat of
cyberattacks, according to several senior defense officials who spoke on
condition of anonymity because the meetings were private.
Yeah, never mind that they are not really leaving in 2014.
Officials would provide no details on which nations might eventually be willing to take on some of the training mission, which will be in need of advisers as other NATO nations pull their troops out.
With the United States shifting its focus away from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon’s new military strategy puts more importance on the Asia Pacific region, where North Korea is a growing threat and China is rapidly building its military and its political and economic influence.
Related: Korean Conundrum
What do we do with a crap hole war-promoter, 'eh?
The Pentagon is poised to move more forces to the Pacific region, including plans to rotate units in and out of Australia. The United States has long provided training, equipment, assistance, and a security umbrella for many of the Asia Pacific nations. With budget cuts looming that will reduce the size of the military, the United States is looking to South American countries to be more active global partners.
“The United States, just like other countries, are facing budget constrictions - which are going to affect the future,’’ Panetta said at a news conference in Brazil. “And what we believe is that the best way to approach the future is to develop partnerships, alliances, to develop relationships with other countries, share information, share assistance, share capabilities, and in that way we can provide greater security for the future.’’
Panetta would also like to see the countries use their military capability to train some Central American countries that are not as advanced.
All three defense chiefs - Juan Carlos Pinzon of Colombia, Celso Amorim of Brazil, and Andres Allamand of Chile - brought up cyber threats as a major concern for their countries, including incidents of hacker attacks and data thefts, the US defense officials said as they flew home from Chile.
The three countries, said one of the officials, want help from the United States in hardening their computer networks against breaches and increasing their technological skills. The official said there is a recognition of how vulnerable they are, and they want to learn more about the nature of the threat and how to combat it.
That threat, however, is also likely to involve China, which is steadily gaining as a top trading partner and economic developer in South America. It’s surpassing the United States in trade with Brazil, Chile, and Peru, and is a close second in Argentina and Colombia.
Who lost South America, Americans?
For the first time, US intelligence officials publicly called out China late last year as a significant cyber threat. While they did not directly tie attacks to the Beijing government, they said the Chinese are systematically stealing American high-tech data for their own economic gain.
Of course, when Israel does it's all kept quiet.
The unusually forceful public report seemed to signal a new, more vocal US government campaign against the cyberattacks, which could also involve helping other nations combat similar threats.
I take that to mean war.
The Pentagon’s National Security Agency is an acknowledged world leader in cyber technologies. And US officials have been struggling to work out ways for the government to help other nations as well as the private sector in the United States shore up critical networks.
As if laws ever stopped governments from breaking them.
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