In a congressional hearing on Wednesday, former Director of National Intelligence and retired Navy admiral Dennis Blair told the panel that the United States should be prepared to use military force to oppose Chinese aggression in the South China Sea.
“I think we need to have some specific lines and then encourage China to compromise on some of its objectives,” Blair, who headed the U.S. Pacific Command while in the Navy, said at the hearing.
The admiral’s recommendation came the day after a United Nations tribunal invalidated China’s claim of territorial rights to nearly all of the waters in the South China Sea. Other nations in the region — including the Philippines, who brought the action against China in 2013 — also claim sovereignty in that zone.
The U.S., citing the territorial dispute and security concerns raised by its allies in the region, have for months been sending warships into the South China Sea as a check against Chinese hostility.
Beijing, acutely aware of the military buildup off its coast, has publicly warned the U.S. it’s more than ready to defend against provocations.
“China hopes disputes can be resolved by talks,” an editorial in one of the country’s state-run newspapers said last week, “but it must be prepared for any military confrontation. This is common sense in international relations.”
Hanging above the whole affair is the fact that China, long before Tuesday’s ruling, had repeatedly stated it has no intention of abiding by the U.N.’s decision. And within hours after the tribunal’s verdict, China doubled down on that stance by raising the possibility that it would erect an “air defense identification zone” over the South China Sea.
“If our security is being threatened, of course we have the right to demarcate a zone,” Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said Wednesday at a briefing in Beijing. “We hope that other countries will not take this opportunity to threaten China and work with China to protect the peace and stability of the South China Sea, and not let it become the origin of a war.”
And war, it appears, is becoming increasingly likely by the day — with other countries in Southeast Asia beginning to take sides.
On Wednesday, Taiwan — whom Beijing considers to be territorially a part of China — sent a naval frigate to patrol the contested waters. The country’s claims of sovereignty in the region run parallel to China’s, and as such have similarly rejected the U.N.’s ruling. The deployment of the warship had been scheduled for Thursday, but was moved up a day after the tribunal handed down its verdict — a clear signal of a growing solidarity with China.
“The mission of this voyage is to display Taiwan people’s resolve in defending the national interest,” Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen said in a speech before the launching of the frigate.
On the other side of the equation, the Philippines — who since Tuesday’s ruling has been urging China to adhere to the U.N.’s proclamation — has for years been strengthening its military alliance with the United States.
In July of 2013, for instance, it was reported that the U.S. military was negotiating an agreement to increase the American presence in the Philippines. For its part, the media made no attempt at obfuscation.
From the New York Times:
The negotiations for increased military access come amid simmering tensions between the Philippines and China over areas in the South China Sea claimed by both countries and moves by the United States to ensure it retains influence in the region even as China’s grow.
That agreement was cemented in March of 2014.
By April of the following year, 6,000 troops had been deployed to the Philippines to participate in military exercises. In November, President Obama himself traveled to the country to negotiate the terms of further cooperation.
Then, last April — weeks after the announcement of the specific Filipino military bases where American personnel would be stationed — U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter reiterated that deepening collaboration.
“There will be a regular, periodic presence here of American forces,” he stated at a news briefing in Manila. “The things that we’re doing here are part of a pattern that goes back decades. They’re at the invitation of an alliance partner.”
So, with the U.S. demanding compromise from a China who refuses to bow down — and forcing local powers to choose sides in the process — it seems the stage is being set for a potential military conflict in the South China Sea that could engulf the entire region.
This article (Former Admiral Urges America to Prepare for Imminent Naval Battle with China) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to James Holbrooks and UndergroundReporter.org. If you spot a typo, please email the error and the name of the article to undergroundreporter2016@gmail.com. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
Blair? Dodgy surname, especially in the context of calls for war.
Can’t wait to dive on the artificial reefs DUHmerican ships will make!
read some of your post at other sites and are you a sorry case for a human being , have you thought of suicide to end your pain ?
When your warmongering terrorist cesspool is finally a smoldering nuclear ash my pain will end. Thanks for asking. Have a great DUHmerican day.
DOLT
How DARE anyone speak of DUHmerica in the same way DUHmericans speak of the rest of the world!!!! Oh the humanity!
Sounds like you have.
The general must be be heavily invested in the war games and loves it when we spend $600 for a hammer and $3,000 for a toilet. He laughs all the way to the bank. Hey, did you hear? The Pentagon just spent 417 MILLION Dollars to train 100 Syrian “freedom fighters”. The general laughs at us again!
The military industrial complex is not just an American phenomenon. Russia has made a killing off Billions in new weapons contracts showcased in its ~$400M expenditure in Syria, as well as negotiating a large multi-billion dollar contract with Saudi Arabia to build a high tech aerospace defense system. ….Reminiscent of the themes in The Report From Iron Mountain regarding TPTB’s goals to flush massive amounts of resources down the drain through wars and waste to keep the serfs disempowered. China’s famous ghost cities and their practice of demolishing large brand new buildings is another example. Time for people to wake up, look past the endless smoke and BS jingoism = theater of the absurd.
This is a version of an an original page atributed to Robert Elias, a US Professor of Political Science , a list which, like so many others, has otherwise ‘disappered’
US CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY & GLOBAL TERRORISM
US Use of Weapons of Mass Destruction
The indiscriminate use of bombs by the US, usually outside a declared war
situation, for wanton destruction, for no military objectives, whose
targets and victims are civilian populations, or what we now call
“collateral damage.”
Japan (1945)
China (1945-46)
Korea & China (1950-53)
Guatemala (1954, 1960, 1967-69)
Indonesia (1958)
Cuba (1959-61)
Congo (1964)
Peru (1965)
Laos (1964-70)
Vietnam (1961-1973)
Cambodia (1969-70)
Grenada (1983)
Lebanon (1983-84)
Libya (1986)
El Salvador (1980s)
Nicaragua (1980s)
Iran (1987)
Panama (1989)
Iraq (1991-2000)
Kuwait (1991)
Somalia (1993)
Bosnia (1994-95)
Sudan (1998)
Afghanistan (1998)
Pakistan (1998)
Yugoslavia (1999)
Bulgaria (1999)
Macedonia (1999)
US Use of Chemical & Biological Weapons
The US has refused to sign Conventions against the development and use of
chemical and biological weapons, and has either used or tested (without
informing the civilian populations) these weapons in the following
locations abroad:
Bahamas (late 1940s-mid-1950s)
Canada (1953)
China and Korea (1950-53)
Korea (1967-69)
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia (1961-1970)
Panama (1940s-1990s)
Cuba (1962, 69, 70, 71, 81, 96)
And the US has tested such weapons on US civilian populations, without
their knowledge, in the following locations:
Watertown, NY and US Virgin Islands (1950)
SF Bay Area (1950, 1957-67)
Minneapolis (1953)
St. Louis (1953)
Washington, DC Area (1953, 1967)
Florida (1955)
Savannah GA/Avon Park, FL (1956-58)
New York City (1956, 1966)
Chicago (1960)
And the US has encouraged the use of such weapons, and provided the
technology to develop such weapons in various nations abroad, including:
Egypt
South Africa
Iraq
US Political and Military Interventions since 1945
The US has launched a series of military and political interventions since
1945, often to install puppet regimes, or alternatively to engage in
political actions such as smear campaigns, sponsoring or targeting
opposition political groups (depending on how they served US interests),
undermining political parties, sabotage and terror campaigns, and so forth.
It has done so in nations such as
China (1945-51)
South Africa (1960s-1980s)
France (1947)
Bolivia (1964-75)
Marshall Islands (1946-58)
Australia (1972-75)
Italy (1947-1975)
Iraq (1972-75)
Greece (1947-49)
Portugal (1974-76)
Philippines (1945-53)
East Timor (1975-99)
Korea (1945-53)
Ecuador (1975)
Albania (1949-53)
Argentina (1976)
Eastern Europe (1948-56)
Pakistan (1977)
Germany (1950s)
Angola (1975-1980s)
Iran (1953)
Jamaica (1976)
Guatemala (1953-1990s)
Honduras (1980s)
Costa Rica (mid-1950s, 1970-71)
Nicaragua (1980s)
Middle East (1956-58)
Philippines (1970s-90s)
Indonesia (1957-58)
Seychelles (1979-81)
Haiti (1959)
South Yemen (1979-84)
Western Europe (1950s-1960s)
South Korea (1980)
Guyana (1953-64)
Chad (1981-82)
Iraq (1958-63)
Grenada (1979-83)
Vietnam (1945-53)
Suriname (1982-84)
Cambodia (1955-73)
Libya (1981-89)
Laos (1957-73)
Fiji (1987)
Thailand (1965-73)
Panama (1989)
Ecuador (1960-63)
Afghanistan (1979-92)
Congo (1960-65, 1977-78)
El Salvador (1980-92)
Algeria (1960s)
Haiti (1987-94)
Brazil (1961-64)
Bulgaria (1990-91)
Peru (1965)
Albania (1991-92)
Dominican Republic (1963-65)
Somalia (1993)
Cuba (1959-present)
Iraq (1990s)
Indonesia (1965)
Peru (1990-present)
Ghana (1966)
Mexico (1990-present)
Uruguay (1969-72)
Colombia (1990-present)
Chile (1964-73)
Yugoslavia (1995-99)
Greece (1967-74)
US Perversions of Foreign Elections
The US has specifically intervened to rig or distort the outcome of foreign
elections, and sometimes engineered sham “demonstration” elections to ward
off accusations of government repression in allied nations in the US sphere
of influence. These sham elections have often installed or maintained in
power repressive dictators who have victimized their populations. Such
practices have occurred in nations such as:
Philippines (1950s)
Italy (1948-1970s)
Lebanon (1950s)
Indonesia (1955)
Vietnam (1955)
Guyana (1953-64)
Japan (1958-1970s)
Nepal (1959)
Laos (1960)
Brazil (1962)
Dominican Republic (1962)
Guatemala (1963)
Bolivia (1966)
Chile (1964-70)
Portugal (1974-75)
Australia (1974-75)
Jamaica (1976)
El Salvador (1984)
Panama (1984, 89)
Nicaragua (1984, 90)
Haiti (1987, 88)
Bulgaria (1990-91)
Albania (1991-92)
Russia (1996)
Mongolia (1996)
Bosnia (1998)
US Versus World at the United Nations
The US has repeatedly acted to undermine peace and human rights initiatives
at the United Nations, routinely voting against hundreds of UN resolutions
and treaties. The US easily has the worst record of any nation on not
supporting UN treaties. In almost all of its hundreds of “no” votes, the US
was the “sole” nation to vote no (among the 100-130 nations that usually
vote), and among only 1 or 2 other nations voting no the rest of the time.
Here’s a representative sample of US votes from 1978-1987:
US Is the Sole “No” Vote on Resolutions or Treaties
For aid to underdeveloped nations
For the promotion of developing nation exports
For UN promotion of human rights
For protecting developing nations in trade agreements
For New International Economic Order for underdeveloped nations
For development as a human right
Versus multinational corporate operations in South Africa
For cooperative models in developing nations
For right of nations to economic system of their choice
Versus chemical and biological weapons (at least 3 times)
Versus Namibian apartheid
For economic/standard of living rights as human rights
Versus apartheid South African aggression vs. neighboring states (2 times)
Versus foreign investments in apartheid South Africa
For world charter to protect ecology
For anti-apartheid convention
For anti-apartheid convention in international sports
For nuclear test ban treaty (at least 2 times)
For prevention of arms race in outer space
For UNESCO-sponsored new world information order (at least 2 times)
For international law to protect economic rights
For Transport & Communications Decade in Africa
Versus manufacture of new types of weapons of mass destruction
Versus naval arms race
For Independent Commission on Disarmament & Security Issues
For UN response mechanism for natural disasters
For the Right to Food
For Report of Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination
For UN study on military development
For Commemoration of 25th anniversary of Independence for Colonial Countries
For Industrial Development Decade in Africa
For interdependence of economic and political rights
For improved UN response to human rights abuses
For protection of rights of migrant workers
For protection against products harmful to health and the environment
For a Convention on the Rights of the Child
For training journalists in the developing world
For international cooperation on third world debt
For a UN Conference on Trade & Development
US Is 1 of Only 2 “No” Votes on Resolutions or Treaties
For Palestinian living conditions/rights (at least 8 times)
Versus foreign intervention into other nations
For a UN Conference on Women
Versus nuclear test explosions (at least 2 times)
For the non-use of nuclear weapons vs. non-nuclear states
For a Middle East nuclear free zone
Versus Israeli nuclear weapons (at least 2 times)
For a new world international economic order
For a trade union conference on sanctions vs. South Africa
For the Law of the Sea Treaty
For economic assistance to Palestinians
For UN measures against fascist activities and groups
For international cooperation on money/finance/debt/trade/development
For a Zone of Peace in the South Atlantic
For compliance with Intl Court of Justice decision for Nicaragua vs. US.
**For a conference and measures to prevent international terrorism
(including its underlying causes)
For ending the trade embargo vs. Nicaragua
US Is 1 of Only 3 “No” Votes on Resolutions and Treaties
Versus Israeli human rights abuses (at least 6 times)
Versus South African apartheid (at least 4 times)
Versus return of refugees to Israel
For ending nuclear arms race (at least 2 times)
For an embargo on apartheid South Africa
For South African liberation from apartheid (at least 3 times)
For the independence of colonial nations
For the UN Decade for Women
Versus harmful foreign economic practices in colonial territories
For a Middle East Peace Conference
For ending the embargo of Cuba (at least 10 times)
In addition, the US has:
Repeatedly withheld its dues from the UN
Twice left UNESCO because of its human rights initiatives
Twice left the International Labor Organization for its workers rights
initiatives
Refused to renew the Antiballistic Missile Treaty
Refused to sign the Kyoto Treaty on global warming
Refused to back the World Health Organization’s ban on infant formula abuses
Refused to sign the Anti-Biological Weapons Convention
Refused to sign the Convention against the use of land mines
Refused to participate in the UN Conference Against Racism in Durban
Been one of the last nations in the world to sign the UN Covenant on
Political &
Civil Rights (30 years after its creation)
Refused to sign the UN Covenant on Economic & Social Rights
Opposed the emerging new UN Covenant on the Rights to Peace, Development &
Environmental Protection
Sampling of Deaths >From US Military Interventions & Propping Up Corrupt
Dictators (using the most conservative estimates)
Nicaragua
30,000 dead
Brazil
100,000 dead
Korea
4 million dead
Guatemala
200,000 dead
Honduras
20,000 dead
El Salvador
63,000 dead
Argentina
40,000 dead
Bolivia
10,000 dead
Uruguay
10,000 dead
Ecuador
10,000 dead
Peru
10,000 dead
Iraq
1.3 million dead
Iran
30,000 dead
Sudan
8-10,000 dead
Colombia
50,000 dead
Panama
5,000 dead
Japan
140,000 dead
Afghanistan
10,000 dead
Somalia
5000 dead
Philippines
150,000 dead
Haiti
100,000 dead
Dominican Republic
10,000 dead
Libya
500 dead
Macedonia
1000 dead
South Africa
10,000 dead
Pakistan
10,000 dead
Palestine
40,000 dead
Indonesia
1 million dead
East Timor
1/3-1/2 of total population
Greece
10,000 dead
Laos
600,000 dead
Cambodia
1 million dead
Angola
300,000 dead
Grenada
500 dead
Congo
2 million dead
Egypt
10,000 dead
Vietnam
1.5 million dead
Chile
50,000 dead
Other Lethal US Interventions
CIA Terror Training Manuals
Development and distribution of training manuals for foreign military
personnel or foreign nationals, including instructions on assassination,
subversion, sabotage, population control, torture, repression,
psychological torture, death squads, etc.
Specific Torture Campaigns
Creation and launching of direct US campaigns to support torture as an
instrument of terror and social control for governments in Greece, Iran,
Vietnam, Bolivia, Uruguay, Brazil, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Panama
Supporting and Harboring Terrorists
The promotion, protection, arming or equiping of terrorists such as:
. Klaus Barbie and other German Nazis, and Italian and Japanese fascists,
after WW II
. Manual Noriega (Panama), Saddam Hussein (Iraq), Rafael Trujillo
(Dominican Republic), Osama bin Laden (Afghanistan), and others whose
terrorism has come back to haunt us
. Running the Higher War College (Brazil) and first School of the Americas
(Panama), which gave US training to repressors, death squad members, and
torturers (the second School of the Americas is still running at Ft.
Benning GA)
. Providing asylum for Cuban, Salvadoran, Guatemalan, Haitian, Chilean,
Argentinian, Iranian, South Vietnamese and other terrorists, dictators, and
torturers
Assassinating World Leaders
Using assassination as a tool of foreign policy, wherein the CIA has
initiated assassination attempts against at least 40 foreign heads of state
(some several times) in the last 50 years, a number of which have been
successful, such as: Patrice Lumumba (Congo), Rafael Trujillo (Dominican
Republic), Ngo Dihn Diem (Vietnam) Salvador Allende (Chile)
Arms Trade & US Military Presence
. The US is the world’s largest seller of weapons abroad, arming
dictators, militaries, and terrorists that repress or victimize their
populations, and fueling scores of violent conflicts around the globe
. The US is the world’s largest provider of live land mines which, even in
peacetime, kill or injure at least several people around the world each day
. The US has military bases in at least 50 nations around the world, which
have led to frequent victimization of local populations.
. The US military has been bombing one Middle Eastern or Muslim nation or
another almost continuously since 1983, including Lebanon, Libya, Syria,
Iran, the Sudan, Afghanistan, and Iraq (almost daily bombings since 1991)
This, then, is a sampling of American foreign policies over the last 50
years. The FBI uses the following definition for Terrorism: “The unlawful
use of force or violence committed by a group or individual, who has some
connection to a foreign power or whose activities transcend national
boundaries, against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a
government, the civilian population or any segment thereof, in furtherance
of political or social objectives.” This sounds like the terrorism we just
experienced. It also sounds a lot like the US policies and actions since
1945 that I’ve just described.
Thanks I have copy/pasted it and saved it. A lot of info there.
Pivot to Asia ? – the USA will lose all support in the region – of the people, that is.
The Asian politicians are a different matter – as with all politicians, they will do what’s best for them.
I get the feeling that if China must respond to US aggression it will sink the whole fleet. To attack just one ship or plane is to invite retaliation, while to sink everything in the theater delays retaliation and hopefully convinces Washington to de-escalate, by convincing them they’ll all die in the ensuing war. Make it clear to them, it’s not just ships and planes and soldiers who’ll be attacked but the warmonger elite this time.
Yes, and China does have a hyper-sonic ship killer in its arsenal that could drop a large fleet onto the ocean floor in one hour.
Unfortunately that would give the psycho-freaks the excuse to mobilize the entire USA population for the 3 rd and final Phase in their war to gain full control on humanity.
China knows this is just another bluff from the hubris inflated warmongers.
The players involved, apparent and behind the scenes, could care less about the sovereignty of their ally’s and are bluffing in an attempt to maintain a potential foothold in the area.
My first thought was the kettle calling the pot black with the American military complaining of this alleged infraction.
Look at the data gift economy has provided in their post on this thread showing our record of atrocities. All this shows me is the continued corruption and disconnect from reality that has affected our so called leadership. They have no shame.
China and Russia will just ignore or call our bluff and then just wait it out.
They both know our insane corruption will eat away at our own nation defeating us from within. With enemies like ourselves, we won’t need China or Russia.
It’s a page from Orwell’s 1984, faux superstate rivalry to continue to distracting the world’s serfs from perceiving the top of the pyramid puppeteering the oligarchs of every nation state, including Russia and China, who are already in the tight grip of the Banksters and the UN Agendas.
Seems like the Philippines will become the new Okinawa.
And please don’t forget which nation it was, that started the whole messy ball of wax rolling in the South China Sea! Japan! One of America’s allies, perfectly poised to provoke China by purchasing the surface rights to the contested Sendakus. That set China off. It has on numerous occasions declared sovereignty over these island, but did nothing overt with respect to challenging Japan’s own declaration of sovereignty, until Japan foolishly made their physical challenge. Now it has become the centrepiece of a potential war, that the US is just slavering for. Wherever there is a possibility of violent confrontation, the US will be there front and centre bristling with military armaments!
Go China – sink the lot. Better still, hold tight until the USA suffers complete economic collapse.
By what possible stretch of the imagination is the S China Sea any security interest of the US? Let the Asians work out their problems.