Obama team, Navy at odds over South China Sea

Politico ^ | 7/31/15 | Austin Wright

[ghost of stonewall jackson]

The Pentagon has repeatedly maintained it reserves the right to sail or fly by a series of artificial islands that China is outfitting with military equipment. The Navy won’t say what it has or hasn’t done, but military officials and congressional hawks want the U.S. to make a major demonstration by sending warships within 12 miles of the artificial islands and make clear to China that the U.S. rejects its territorial claims.

By not doing so, they charge, Washington is tacitly accepting China’s destabilizing moves, which are seen by U.S. allies in the region such as Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam as highly threatening.

“We continue to restrict our Navy from operating within a 12 nautical mile zone of China’s reclaimed islands, a dangerous mistake that grants de facto recognition of China’s man-made sovereignty claims,” Sen. John McCain, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told POLITICO.

Sources in the military and within the administration acknowledge the difference of opinion privately, but would not go on the record to discuss the differences between Navy leaders and the administration. The internal debate within the U.S. government comes as leaders of Pacific nations, including Secretary of State John Kerry and his his Chinese counterpart, are set to convene for a regional security conference next week in Malaysia and ahead of the state visit to the United States in September of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

[DoughtyOne]

What they should do is send the Army core of engineers in there and dismantle the military base.

China has zero claim to those islands.

[StoneWall Brigade]

Ping

[tet68]

Obama: “Mahan who?”.

Just another dead white guy.

[Paladin2]

Is 0bama a Secret Asian Man?

[Will88]

By not doing so, they charge, Washington is tacitly accepting China’s destabilizing moves, which are seen by U.S. allies in the region such as Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam as highly threatening.

Once again Obama comes down on the side against America's traditional interests and allies.

[Mouton]

Remember, O bama does not worry about wars, agreements, or anything that happened in history before his hatching. I figure by the time he is done, hopefully, he will have his own calendar beginning with day one on it. It will be called the Nirobian Calendar. He will require the entire world to adhere to it because of his magnificence.

[JimSEA]

Beyond traditional allies, Obama come counter to any country that has a shred of moral decency.

[buckalfa]

"China has zero claim to those islands."

Unfortunately, possession is 9/10ths of the law.

[DoughtyOne]

That’s right.

Time to evict is now.

[Forty-Niner]

No, he’s a Communist, and, as such, supports all Communist regimes.

[Jeff Head]

We have waited too long.

It is not just a matter of "dismantling" them. They have dredged up, and then carefully used good reclamation science to build entire islands. Using hundreds of millions of tons of the right type of aggregate to build them, then building the necessary very thick retaining walls to keep them from eroding. They have place enclosed lagoons on many of them, and now 3,000 m airfields (that's 10,000 feet) They are building up the infrastructure and adding vegetation.

In addition, it is in their back yard. They are within range of their own mainland air, and have now developed a strong Navy, with modern vessels by the score.

No, we are not going to dislodge them at this point short of a World War.

What we can do...and must do...is to punctuate Freedom of Navigation (FON) by continuing strong patrols in the area with our allies, and by coming within 2-3 miles of the islands and not 12.

Just as we probably cannot and will not dislodge them from those islands, we must not all them to disrupt our FON through the areas on the SLOCs that pass through there.

One other thing we would do if we were the strong leader we should be. We would work together with Australia, Japan, and India, who are all concerned, and establish a consortium to provide the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and other nations like Indonesia and Singapore, the low interest funding and expertise via our large AEC firms to do exactly the same on their islands so that China's position is matched by other claimants in the area.

I do not look to the Obama admin or RINOs to do that though.

See my Flickr Album on this to see the scale of what they have accomplished. Most of the construction on the islands shown there is now complete:

PRC Reclamation in the South China Sea

[bert]

no war, pacifism carries the day

there is no legal ground to stand on regarding this issue and lawyers must study it

peace mongers rule

[DoughtyOne]

All financed by trade with the United States.

I helped fund that island by buying products we didn’t make in the United States any longer.

Our officials sure bent our purchasing strength to work against us.