Posted on 10/03/2011 11:10:36 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
An ugly momentum is building in the South China Sea, where an official Chinese newspaper called last week for war against Vietnam and the Philippines to uphold China's assertion of sovereignty over the mineral-rich seabed, estimated to hold 7 billion barrels of oil and 900 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
The lead article in the Chinese Communist Party newspaper Global Times Tuesday carried the headline "The time to use force has arrived in the South China Sea; Let's wage wars on the Philippines and Vietnam to prevent more wars."
"The South China Sea is the best place for China to wage wars," the article said. "Of the more than 1,000 oil rigs there, none belongs to China; of the four airfields in the Spratly Islands, none belongs to China; once a war is declared, the South China Sea will be a sea of fire [with burning oil rigs]. Who will suffer the most from a war? Once a war starts there, the Western oil companies will flee the area, who will suffer the most?"
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
The Philippines cannot afford to make calls to defense contractors. They can’t afford the sort of defense spending that would deter the Chinese.
I doubt the Vietnamese can either.
P-Noy, as he is called in the RP, is the Obama of South East Asia. He won by a huge margin, very popular but a idealist, neophyte and a pu**y like Obama. He kept referring to the UN believing that the Chicoms would play nice. (My sis in law is Fil so I’m updated with RP issues)
Why not, it’s not like Emperor Stupid (Barack Obama) is going to do anything about it, and they KNOW that.
If they are analyzing things, and you can bet they are, they know they only have 12-14 months to make a major move like this.
Pray tell, what could the US do about it? Get involved in yet another war when our military is stretched thin and we are flat broke?
One of Art's uncles is captain of a fishing boat and he has had a couple of encounters with Chinese vessels in what should be Filippino waters. They sweep in, ignoring international laws, and gut the fishing grounds, then take off before the Philippine Navy can arrive. And if the Navy is lucky enough to get there in time, they usually find themselves facing a PLAN frigate or destroyer that "just happened" to be conducting exercises nearby.
From what I’ve heard, P-Noy makes Obama look worldly and decisive. Unlike Obama, I feel sorry for him. He should have stuck to staying at home, living off his family’s savings and building his music collection. At most, he should have finagled a comfy niche in a government department, somewhere. How he got pulled into a leadership position is beyond me.
Let’s see, keep America from interfering by destroying their fleet in Pearl Harbor. Yea, that should work.............
“The Philippines cannot afford to make calls to defense contractors. They can’t afford the sort of defense spending that would deter the Chinese.
I doubt the Vietnamese can either.”
We the United States should nonetheless come to the defense of the Philippines, pledge to go to war with them if China ceases their resources.
The Philippines might not be able to stand up to China but we can and we must. China must be stopped and if they are not they will become an even greater economic and military threat int he future. We must leverage our advantage now to gain advantage in the future.
“Pray tell, what could the US do about it? Get involved in yet another war when our military is stretched thin and we are flat broke?”
Being broke is a problem, but our navy is relatively free even as our air-force is in Libya, and army are in Afghanistan and Iraq.
We can and should come to the defends of the Philippines if for no other reason then the keep them from taking control of a huge lot of natural resources that would make them a far more significant threat in the future by means of removing one of their vulnerabilities.
China must be stopped they cant be allowed to bully their way into taking the worlds resources. We either stop them now while we can, or we wait till we can’t so easily stop them.
Siding with our long time friend and former colony the Philippines is a great excuse to do that.
China has internal problems and this is mostly to feed the masses. If a conflict breaks out. Three Gorges Dam and seaports are the only target worth hitting. They could cripple China for decades if they were taken out. Forget everything else.
Looks like we may be back in Subic Bay and back in Cam Ran (with the Russians) before long! This could work out well for US.
The entire country would go into meltdown. :-)
Remember, a billion mouths to feed is a liability.
Cheers!
I almost wrote, just imagine what a SINGLE cruise missile into the Three Gorges Dam would do.
Seriously, though, pray for peace, be prepared for war.
Better to drop everything else and nip this in the bud, or do your want to seen china act like imperial japan?
We can’t always warn china that part of our peace treaty will be the cancelation of our debt.
Let’s see-thru eliminate a threat, reduce our debt to china down to zero, and probably end american jobs going to china. Please don’t throw me into that brier patch.
Damn auto complete.
Can’t = can’t
See-thru = see
At the end of the article. Strengthening a base 1,800 miles from the conflict zone seems a little distant to me.
What happens to the US companies that do business in China and have built factories there? Economic warfare would cut both ways and then the world economy would split apart and force China and the US into conflict. Hopefully the conflict would be like the Cold War, but it could get heated real fast if at the beginning one side doesn't like its options.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.