Posted on 10/26/2015 4:00:26 PM PDT by WhiskeyX
The U.S. Navy plans to send a ship to within 12 nautical miles of disputed islands in the South China Sea, a U.S. official confirmed to Fox News -- in an apparent challenge to Beijing's territorial claims.
Reuters first reported that the Navy planned within 24 hours to send a destroyer near the Spratly Islands, an archipelago that China aggressively has laid claim to by building airstrips and other features on top of reefs.
Reuters reported that the ship probably would be joined by a surveillance plane.
U.S. military officials were angry over the leak, but one official reluctantly confirmed the plans.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The fact that this was announced in the clear, including that it would be within 24 hours, tells you that the US and China both know when and where it is going to happen.
The US will sale a Burke DDG and probably accompany it with an LCS, within 12 miles of one of these artificial islands.
(See my Flickr album about these islands here:)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeff_head/albums/72157653161943872
China will issue warnings.
That will be the end of it.
The US will uphold FON, and China will claim that they warned the Americans not to get too close.
My guess is that wee will honor a 3-4 nmi limit for the artificial islands...but not a 12 nmi limit which is accorded for continental land masses, or actual islands.
Don’t tell the President, he thinks this is his big chance to Surrender!
The Chief Lemur thumps his chest in a show of farce.
If no shooting then my guess is GayMuzzie has some secret back deal and this is Kabuki.
This needs to be done we have to have freedom of navigation
Good analysis. i didn’t think of that.
China is about to invest in Texas land but they’ll go to war over these island right after that announcement?
while we owe them a fortune.
wouldn’t make sense.
but then, life doesn’t, i’ve learned the hard way
The ONLY way Ill buy that Obama is not performing this one solitary show of force while secretly conceeding all China desires is if we..
KEEP DOING IT REPEATEDLY.
Just as with the “US Air War Against ISIS” I think this is ARTIFICE.
Challenging the claims of one of the largest nations on earth -— by what? Sailing one — one -— ship through their waters? One ship? There has to be more to this story we haven’t been told -—right now it makes no sense other then if it’s a deliberate provocation ?
Seems SCRIPTED.
Not buying it.
His pen and phone are still wheezing and warm.
Fix is in, wouldnt wanna be Phillipino or Taiwanese, who will soon be treated to a Benghazi rooftop rescue.
“and probably accompany it with an LCS”
Oh, I get it. To show we cannot possibly be dangerous.
Remember when President Reagan crossed the “line of death”?
It was no secret he was going to cross it and his point was well made.
What is Zer0 trying to accomplish? Is he going to Community organize these islands? We have a mannish boy lunatic CNC. God help us.
saber rattling ... but it IS the right thing to do for the faithful to the US Philippines
At the risk of sounding like a naïve neo isolationist, consider the following. There is nothing that angers China more than when the US or for that matter any non Asian country uses economic, diplomatic or military coercion to influence Asian affairs. The Chinese view themselves as the leaders of Asia much as the emperors of the Middle Kingdom viewed themselves as predominant. They like the Japanese before them bitterly resent non Asian interference or dominance in their affairs. A major motivation for Japan to begin its catastrophic war against the West was the humiliation that much of Asia was ruled and dominated by the British, French, Dutch and Americans. The Japanese viewed themselves as the predominant Asian power and their duty to liberate Asia from the rule of what they saw as racist white men. This perspective has never been appreciated then or now in the West.
China sees itself as the dominant Asian power and exercises its power accordingly. Look at what has happened in Iran. The Chinese view Iran as a natural Asian supplier of low cost energy and its seventy five million citizens as cash laden consumers of its export oriented economy. It did not fear a nuclear Iran. In fact it sold Iran the sophisticated shore to ship missiles that made the narrow, shallow Persian Gulf a death trap for the big blue water ships of the US Navy. China also sold Iran the sophisticated long range ballistic missiles positioned in Iran and the short range ballistic missiles positioned in Syria that would have effectuated a devastating counterattack on Israeli cities and population centers if Israel had attacked Iran. China made it clear it did not want the US with sanctions, military threats and diplomatic posturing to interfere with its own interests. Obama lost, signed a “treaty” with Iran and withdrew from the Gulf.
Ooooo, Ahhhhh, that’s going to show them Chinese guys that we really mean business. You betcha.
Yes. Watch the show, don’t pay any attention to the pick pockets.
Possible China will “back down” to make Zero look like a stud in order to help the Dems in the election? I know, its a stretch, but I know nothing in this administration is as it appears.
It is not their waters. You can’t build an island in a shipping lane and then say Mine! Nobody go there!
however interpreted, sending in a single ship looks very much like a provocation
you can provoke a guilty person at least as quickly as you can provoke an innocent one
provocation is provocation
i hope that’s not the case here, but it would be NO surprise at all to see that one single vessel spring a leak
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