From Manila, a quiet alarm has been raised about the architecture of deterrence in the Pacific. Philippines Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro has given voice to what allied capitals have long whispered: that the visible, recurring demonstration of American military commitment is not merely symbolic, but structural — and that when such demonstrations diminish, the silence itself becomes a signal. His warning arrives at a moment when the question of what the United States will sustain in Asia is no longer purely strategic, but political, and the answer carries consequences for nations whose sec