Posted on 10/31/2015 7:15:37 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
At last.
After weeks of Hamlet-esque public debate, U.S. defense officials ordered Aegis destroyer USS Lassen to cruise within 12 nautical miles (nm) of Subi Reef on Oct. 27.
The reef is an undersea rock in the South China Sea that Beijing has built into an artificial island in the contested Spratly Islands. It wants it to be considered a real island, with a “territorial sea†surrounding it. That means a 12-nm zone where Chinese domestic law prevails, just like Beijing.
China claims it has the right to do so based on “historic†claims to most of the South China Sea, an area through which $5 trillion dollars worth of trade passes.
By sending a warship within that zone, the U.S. Navy signaled that the United States rejects efforts to rewrite the rules governing the sea and sky. International law clearly states the open sea is no one’s property, and such “freedom-of-navigation†voyages are standard fare elsewhere in the seven seas. And the Lassen’s cruise can’t be a one-time trip without giving China another opportunity to assert its unlawful authority.
The nice thing about the law of the sea is that it’s well written. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), says coastal states may construct artificial islands within “exclusive economic zones†extending 200 nautical miles off their coasts. Beyond that limit, the law allows no such projects.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.reuters.com ...
The tradition of an armed citizen militia is as age old as civilization; having been employed under various names by the Biblical civilizations, the Greek city states, the Roman Republic, and the Fyrd of the Anglo-Germanic tribes in Europe and in Britain.
Fyrd
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fyrd
There is already Chinese military weapons on the islands (located 800 miles from China) - no need to wait for the first PAAF J series.
I’m wondering if those artificial islands are at risk of naturally calamity? I mean do they give them any strategic benefit?
I mean we wait this long to sail through there?
Sure they are at risk, especially of a tsunami. Strategic benefit? You are joking of course... they lie across major shipping lanes ... Waiting until the enemy is ready is an Obama tactic, part of the overall strategy of leading from the rear, aka the You-First-Strategy.
The Philippines is so screwed. All we can do is whine and complain but we don’t have the military to defend our islands. We actually have some armed men on a beached ship on a tiny island to maintain our claim, but the Chinese have blockaded them and is starving them out. We know they will seize it the moment our men leave. We cannot break the blockade and Obama won’t help. It is only a matter of time before we lose everything.
“We actually have some armed men on a beached ship on a tiny island to maintain our claim, but the Chinese have blockaded them and is starving them out.”
What island are they located on?
Can’t someone air drop supplies from an aircraft?
Are you talking about: Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal?
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