India, April 5 -- If China goes after Taiwan without 'disabling' Palau, its Taiwan operation could be jeopardized. Which is one of the reasons the U.S. is putting new military infrastructure, or, in some cases, bringing back to life World War II era infrastructure, in Palau.

Koror, Palau: In the last three months, the Pacific island country of Palau has executed a master-class in how to quietly, professionally and effectively rid itself of serious national security threats-including striking a powerful blow against some major Chinese bad guys (and gals). Given Palau's location, and who it has as allies, this is having an outsized effect on Indo-Pacific security.

We'll get to how Palau did it (and what it did) but first, to understand ho...