Philippines taking S. China Sea fight to tribunal, China uses nuclear threat on Australia

 

 

Philippines taking S. China Sea fight to tribunal: The Philippines took a legal step against China's claims to virtually the entire South China Sea on Tuesday, formally notifying the Asian superpower that Manila is seeking international arbitration to declare Beijing's moves in the potentially oil-rich waters "illegal and invalid."

 

But even if a tribunal ruled against China, Beijing could choose to simply ignore the ruling. Several countries claim parts of the South China Sea, and China claims virtually all of it. There are fears that territorial conflicts in the region, including a dispute between Japan and China in the East China Sea, could spark Asia's next major armed conflict.

 

 China colonel raises nuclear spectre: A CHINESE military officer has raised the spectre of nuclear weapons and warned Australia not to side with the United States and Japan as a territorial dispute in the East China Sea continues to escalate. Senior Colonel Liu Mingfu, of the National Defence University, blamed America's ''orchestration'' and Japan's ''militarism'' for rising tensions over disputed islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.

As dispute over islands escalates, Japan and China send fighter jets to scene: It was the first time that supersonic Chinese and Japanese military fighters were in the air together since the dispute over the islands erupted last year,

significantly increasing the risk of a mistake that could lead to armed conflict at a time when both countries, despite their mutual economic interests, are going through a period of heightened nationalism that recalls their longstanding regional rivalry. The escalation comes amid a blast of belligerent discourse in China.

US position on Japan island dispute a 'bet: VEILED US warnings to Beijing not to challenge Japan's control of disputed islands encouraged Tokyo's "dangerously right-leaning" government and "betrayed" Washington's vow of neutrality, Chinese state media has reported.

The comments came as Japan's coastguard said three Chinese government ships had entered Japanese territorial waters around the islands, known as the Senkaku in Japanese and the Diaoyu in Chinese. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday said the area around the islands in the East China Sea was under Japan's control and therefore protected under a US security treaty with Tokyo.

I believe China has a valid argument for the seas around the Paracels because of her geographic location but not all the China seas cutting out the countries that are in the area and have a valid argument.

Hainan, China's southernmost province, administers nearly two million square kilometers of the sea. In July, the Chinese military angered its neighbors by setting up a garrison in Hainan's newly established Sansha City, in an effort to enforce its claims in the region. Many of China's rival claimants, which include the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan, are concerned about what they see as Beijing's increasing assertiveness in defending its claims in the energy-rich South China Sea.

This just keeps ratcheting up and quicker than ever. I wonder where Russia stands in this? Remember the "incident spring 2010 with the 10 Chinese warships including destroyers and submarines off Okinawa? This put a new light on things to me. Look at the big picture once again. Japan has got to be rethinking their constant effort to get the US Military to leave Okinawa.

Cooperation between China Russia and the US is critical and it just keeps getting worse! Obama was right to say our ties will shape the future of the 21st century. The US and China are eying each other and moving very cautiously as they try to strike a balance.

A few years back I began to view our relationship with China as the most important in the world. Not because we drove each others economy but because if at the time with Bush's instigation to war with Russia China due to the fact of how our 2 economies are so intertwined that if something happened China would side with us not Russia. I never imagined that today problems between China and Japan would be the issue.

As we discussed there have been at least four cases of groups of Chinese military ships crossing through the area of Okinawa since November 2008, first 4 ships then 6 then 8 and now 10 including destroyers and submarines. That case appeared to be the first involving surfaced submarines. The group of 10 ships, including the submarines, was observed about 90 miles (140 kilometers) southwest of Okinawa in international waters.

Two missile destroyers and three frigate ships from the same group were spotted participating in a flight exercise of carrier-based helicopters April 7-9, 20010, the Defense Ministry's Joint Staff Office said in a statement The war ships were in international waters but close to Okinawa and Japan was not notified.

That area as you may know has natural resources under the ocean and islands claimed by both Nations. It is important that we stay in Okinawa as China plays a more important role in Asia and around the world as she gains strength militarily and economically as we just discussed.

We are Taiwan's, Vietnam's, Australia's, and Japan's protectors. As China flex's their military muscles in the area we are not supposed to worry. Just what are we supposed to think they are going to do with their advanced weaponry, missiles, stealth aircraft, aircraft carriers and the like. Their threats are going to become more ominous until they cannot be ignored and it is too late. We have been here before. The world was not supposed to worry as Hitler built his arsenal and we know how that turned out.

Certainly not least: As Syria's fall gets closer the realities on the ground are that Iran is influencing and interfering everywhere they possibly can in order to stop what they think is the US getting its way. It has nothing to do with doing the right thing for Syria as a whole. It has everything to do with keeping the US, the West, and Arabs from having events in Syria go their way and not the way of Iran, Russia, China and the rest of their allies.

This is all about the future direction and control of the entire world. We back Japan against Russia in their Island disputes. We back Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam, Australia, and anyone else in the world it seem who asks for our help in their disputes involving the China seas. Both Russia and China vow to defend their interests with ever improving military assets. We back Syrian rebels and Arab Nations against Syria,Hezbollah, Iran, Russia, and China.

World War 3 is all I see, it is only a matter of time. As we know from history wars to not get easier over the years they get more violent, and weapons get more destructive to humans and the planet. We can only hope common sense prevails in all this but there is no way!

James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com

America: Living to fight as it appears or Fighting to Live as we are told?

                America: Living to fight as it appears or Fighting to Live as we are told? 

 

Knowing our world wide interference and our warring past and much of it instigated I was taken aback when President Obama said during his inauguration speech that we are a peaceful people and do not like war but peace.

We supposedly attacked Afghanistan because they were housing Al Qaeda who attacked us at 9/11. However I remember Bush and Cheney meeting in the White House with the Taliban and when the Taliban refused to allow a pipeline to be built through Afghanistan Bush said they would attack them and lo and behold 9/11 happened shortly thereafter.

Bush and Cheney then kept searching for a reason to attack Iraq and get back into the middle east to help Israel create a buffer zone of safety and to go after Iran and other countries. When people believed the lie of Iraq having WMD they diverted from Afghanistan and illegally attacked Iraq.

I have to admit that Libya was the first war in my time where I felt we had no choice if we did not want to sit by and watch the genocide of his own people by Colonel Kaddafi. However I have been listening to many say we had no right to interfere. I feel we had to in good conscience but people are right when they say there is no balance as to what we base the decision to go to war on. Now we are involved in Syria much of it clandestine. What is next? Iran? China? What? We will find one somehow.

Knowing I have been thinking of this for years and I based it on a book written in 2003 in which it was pointed out that we have been at war since our founding, 227 years. that is now 236 years so I had to revisit this thought.

Years ago now I was consumed with the crazy thought that my son who is an EOD (explosive ordinance Disposal) Team Leader just got home from Afghanistan then volunteered for Iraq. I was very concerned as to how many civilians and American soldiers were going to lose their lives in what many of us considered an illegal war.

I was listening again to the number of Americans killed in past wars including the civil war where some 562 thousand lost their lives as you know, fighting amongst ourselves. At first I was focused on the wasted lives in Iraq and was wondering how many there would be when all is said and done as well as feeling there is no foreseeable end and we still have to wonder, then I went to this list and I wanted to compare how many lives were lost in wars in contrast to how many we lost fighting amongst ourselves.

The numbers were getting too convoluted for me to come up with anything tangible I thought. I then was looking at the immense numbers of conflicts and wars we were in and I decided a comparison of war years to peaceful years would be best to tell our story. I couldn't figure it out. I was floored by the number of conflicts and wars America has been in since our founding and thought I would say we have only had approximately 50 years of peace and supply this link on our war and peace History. List of America's wars

Then I went back to Google and I found this compelling story by Jon Stanton showing that America has been at war openly or clandestinely essentially since we were founded. I merely want you to see what is out there and think about the whole story. Having read what he wrote I thought there was something at least worth reading, thinking about, and putting in perspective.

I never read him so I researched him and found him to be a Virginia based writer that writes from a left wing perspective and I am afraid I agree with much of what he says. In fact I have written much of it myself in the past. I am not a warmonger I am a peace lover so I thought I would give you the link to Jon Stanton's book 227 years of warfare written in 2003 and you could tell me what you think. 227 years of warfare It is now 236 years of warfare!

It did make me remember that I did a diary a while back in which I said the U.S. has a war economy and some took exception to that but looking at our History of wars our fault or not I really have to wonder, what are we? I am a peace lover willing to fight for my country as are my sons as you know but are the leaders of America fighting to live or living to fight? what is happening to us? How are we supposed to feel?

James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com