Standing Guard in the Spratly's

[mirth]

http://www.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2013/10/27/south-china-sea/

[Centurion40]

http://www.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2013/10/27/south-china-sea/

What a cool website!

[bayonetbrant]

it's a very good article.  Really makes you want to start just shooting things...

Maybe we need to 'lease' about 50 fishing boats to the Philippines and park them right next to the Chinese and dare them to pick a fight.

[mirth]

I thought it was a new advert for Command :P

[GDS_Starfury]

if by 'fishing boats' you mean retired Perry class frigates then Im for it.

[bayonetbrant]

you can fish off of them, can't you?

what we should've done was pulled the Sierra Madre out of the way and beached the Forrestal instead.  Built-in helicopter strip, and might've even been able to land light planes on the deck.

Would've totally got the Chinese attention when a carrier showed up for beaching, and 100 Filipino marines take up residence, with air support, rather than 12 guys on a rusted hulk.

[Con]

This is an excellent way to use the web to illustrate this complex issue

I like the analogy of a bully putting his fists behind his back and pushing you out of the way with his belly daring you to hit him.  Its going to make any situation in the South Seas very messy from a moral and political viewpoint.

Con

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

"Of taking territory from the Philippines, he said: "We should do more such things in the future."
"

Then they wonder why nobody trusts them.

[LongBlade]

it's a very good article.  Really makes you want to start just shooting things...

Maybe we need to 'lease' about 50 fishing boats to the Philippines and park them right next to the Chinese and dare them to pick a fight.

Hey, Bes missed the chance to buy us a freakin AIRCRAFT CARRIER FOR TWO FETHING PENNIES!!!!!!!!1!!!11111!!!!!

[Gusington]

55.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas?? Golly.

[LongBlade]

That NYT article is pretty slick how they weave images and video in between the story. Kudos to them.

Here's where things get interesting:

In a major speech in Singapore last year, Leon Panetta, then the secretary of defense, described the coming pivot in U.S. strategy in precise terms: "While the U.S. will remain a global force for security and stability, we will of necessity rebalance toward the Asia-Pacific region." He referred to the United States as a "Pacific nation," with a capital "P" and no irony, and then announced a series of changes — most notably that the roughly 50-50 balance of U.S. naval forces between the Pacific and the Atlantic would become 60-40 Pacific by 2020. Given the size of the U.S. Navy, this is enormously significant.

[Gusington]

Maybe they should think about a 75/25 split. Either way Commodore Perry would be proud.

[Dolan50]

I always thought we were still in a semi state of war with China over the Korean War incident in 1950-3.
Granted we never officially declared war and considered the whole thing nothing more than a police action.

But we still fought the Chinese there for almost 3 years and only ended the conflict with a mutual cease fire.
Maybe the cease fire just applies to Korea.

"The signed armistice established a "complete cessation of all hostilities in Korea by all armed force" that was to be enforced by the commanders of both sides. Essentially a complete cease-fire was put into force. The armistice is however only a cease-fire between military forces, rather than an agreement between governments. No peace treaty was signed which means that the Korean War has not officially ended."
Korean Armistice Agreement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I would take this to mean we are still in a semi state of war with China as far as Korea is concerned.

[Steelgrave]

you can fish off of them, can't you?

what we should've done was pulled the Sierra Madre out of the way and beached the Forrestal instead.  Built-in helicopter strip, and might've even been able to land light planes on the deck.

Would've totally got the Chinese attention when a carrier showed up for beaching, and 100 Filipino marines take up residence, with air support, rather than 12 guys on a rusted hulk.

Love this idea. Maybe we should give the folks who bought the Forrestal ten times what they paid and do this!

[Staggerwing]

Hel, give 'em twenty- no need to be stingy!