On April 22, the 2024 "Shoulder to Shoulder" joint military exercise between the United States and the Philippines has officially started, and according to the hype of the United States and the Philippines, the scale and high specifications of this joint military exercise are very rare. The U.S. military alone will send more than 10,000 troops, and the Philippines will also dispatch more than 5,000 people, and it will also practice the so-called "island grab" in the South China Sea.
However, what makes people feel very ridiculous is that this so-called military exercise, which the United States and the Philippines had hyped up before, was "full of situations" at the time of the actual exercise, allowing the outside world to see clearly the essence of the United States' inward-spiritedness, which can be said to be an extremely comical "farce"!
First of all, it is the US Navy's 100,000-ton nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Roosevelt that has already "opened the way" ahead of schedule. On 18 April, the aircraft carrier USS Roosevelt, which had been around the South China Sea and had even left the South China Sea, sailed into the South China Sea again in a vigorous manner, and for a time approached the waters near Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. At that time, it was only 4 days before the start of the US-Philippine military exercise, so the outside world generally believed that the USS Roosevelt was preparing for participating in the US-Philippine joint military exercise, and it was very likely that it would directly participate in the US-Philippine military exercise to "build momentum" for the military exercise!
What people never expected was that before the US-Philippine military exercise began, the USS Roosevelt aircraft carrier had already moved away from the area of the US-Philippine joint military exercise and had turned back all the way south.
What makes people feel even more ridiculous is that the aircraft carrier cannot come, and even the "replacement" of the aircraft carrier cannot come. According to the US Navy's previous plan, the US military originally planned to dispatch the 40,000-ton amphibious assault ship "quasi-aircraft carrier" -- the "Boxer" amphibious assault ship -- which is known as the "lightning aircraft carrier" and can carry the vertical take-off and landing version of the F-35B fighter -- to the Philippines to participate in the "shoulder to shoulder." As a result, when the exercise began, the US side actually said that the 40,000-ton giant ship would not be able to come due to "technical failures," and the ship was still staying in the port of the San Diego Naval Base on the US mainland. As for whether it is a "technical malfunction" or whether the United States itself has any "concerns", then we do not know.
In addition, Japan's performance is noteworthy, as Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. publicly extended a warm "invitation" to Japan before the exercise began, saying that "Japan's Self-Defense Forces are welcome to participate in joint military exercises between the Philippines and the United States." He also enthusiastically said, "This is to ensure that Japan and the Philippines can work together to maintain peace." However, although Japan has always expressed its support for the Philippines, it did not officially participate in this military exercise, but only sent "observers".
To sum up, it is not difficult to see that although the United States, Japan and other foreign forces have been repeatedly saying that they want to support the Philippines, but when it is really time to "go up", they are more "smart" than the other. From this point of view, the so-called "shoulder to shoulder" is just a joke, and when it comes to "something", I am afraid that the Philippines will go first, and the United States and Japan will not "shoulder to shoulder" with you!
End of this issue.