Posted on 03/05/2016 7:58:16 AM PST by darkwing104
China continues to expand its territory in the South China Sea, militarizing disputed Islands. They are taking strategic control over a major trade route that effects more than $5 trillion in global trade. The Chinese have deployed weapons and placed people on various islands throughout the area to feed its need for oil and keep routes open for its own energy needs. Their hunger for oil-rich islands in this trade route is having an impact on freedom of Navigation in the South China Sea. Recently they have even expanded their reach near the Philippines. China is setting up logistics for long term occupation.
U.S. Move
The U.S. Navy has dispatched the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis, two destroyers, two cruisers and the 7th Fleet flagship into the disputed waters where the Chinese have set up bases. The carrier strike group was sent as a show of force to secure freedom of navigation for international shipping and to counter Chinas excessive territorial claims. (1) The Stennis was joined by cruisers Antietam and Mobile Bay, and destroyers Chung-Hoon and Stockdale. The Japan-based 7th Fleet Command ship Blue Ridge is in the area on the way to a port visit in the Philippines. China will now have to deal with a blue water navy. It is a nation which has no history or capability to counter a battle fleet.
(Excerpt) Read more at coachisright.com ...
China could care less. Obama is doing this for domestic consumption trying to show us that he is doing something to confront the Chinese. It is another paper tiger exercise. It is meaningless.
yeah, after that fiasco with Iran, Russia having to finish off ISIS, our absurd ROE, we’ve lost much respect and fear.
that’s bad.
Obama’s creating a flash point in order to declare martial law, cancel elections, and install himself as Forever President.
Responsibility for all those fiascos is all on our Commander in Chief. It wasn’t worth the free cell phones.
and we didn’t even get one.
what we got was a WH glowing in f...t colors on the day of the SC f...t marriage decision. and love wins on twitter.
it hurt so badly to be an American that day.
or when the sailors surrendered to the Iranians.
or when he bowed to the Chinese leader.
or on and on and on and on
Unless...
It took only two replies
“Wag the Dog??”
barack øbama, tough guy....
Don't care for Obama, I do care about the folks on those boats.
As I do.
‘A rock and a hard place.’
What’s the current definition of “confront”? Have a parade and wave howdy to them? A sternly worded tweet would have saved millions of tax dollars and been just as effective.
I don’t think so... I think the USN has been given a little bit of slack to do this according to recent reports.
The first pass was a simply a destroyer drive-by. They cruised by “blacked out” ie. no helicopter operations, active air search radars. Some argued that this was not the way to do a “freedom of navigation” exercise, that the ship should have been cruising at a standard readiness condition.
The second destroyer pass by about a month ago those deficiencies appear to have been corrected. I say ‘appear’ because who knows if you can believe the official reports.
Now they are sending in a CVBG. I think that they are going ‘heavy’ with an extra cruiser just to put an exclamation point on it.
The Chinese are going to squawk. But they’re no going to be able to do squat about it unless they want to start a shooting war. The Philippines, Singapore, Australia & Vietnam will see this and continue to challenge Chinese moves at the reefs.
This.^^^
I didn't read anything about subs being part of the strike force. ;-)
Not so. You should study up on the history of power projection and the role of the US Navy in keeping the Sea Lines of Communication open.
This demonstrates to the world that the US 7th Fleet can still sail wherever it wishes without opposition. That of enormous political and strategic military benefit to us and the world.
You can count of this: If any of these ships is fired on, they will destroy the source. And that includes the emplacements on those fake "Chinese" islands.
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