The top U.S. military commander in the Pacific says the goal of American military preparations in the region is not to fight a war with China but to convince Beijing that military aggression would fail.
Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, discussed that approach in an interview with TIME published on Sept. 24, the day President Donald Trump hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the White House.
“Mission success for me is not to fight and win a war; it’s to provide a deterrent capability so that we never go to war in the first place,” Paparo said….