THE BEAR SWIMS TOO
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| Image by Brocken Inaglory GNU Free Documentation License. |
Editor's Note: We have been tracking the Dragon's swimming progress for about a year and half now. The Dragon boats (Chinese Navy) are clearly directed against U.S. formal allies the Philippines and Japan. The Dragon's intention is to force the Philippines and Japan to give up offshore Islands that are internationally recognized parts of their territory. The Dragon also wants to pull the Philippines and Japan into its political/economic network in a subservient position. The Dragon's weapon of choice in all of this is simply very aggressive gunboat diplomacy. They intend to push the envelope daily as they are doing now constantly edging closer to out right acts of war while pressing baseless law suits in international tribunals for out lying island territories and portions of the ocean exclusive economic zones of their neighbors. As the Dragon aggressively builds up its Navy and Coast Guard the U.S. increases the proportion of its shrinking fleet that is dedicated to the Pacific. The Dragon counts on that. If we continue in this way, to the Dragon mind the Philippines and Japan will no longer trust the U.S. defensive umbrella and will cede territory and bow down to the Middle Kingdom. This will cause the ultimate Dragon naval goal to happen, the retreat of the U.S. Navy to Pearl Harbor and the eventual entry of Australia and New Zealand into the Chinese orbit.
Now we learn that the Bear is building up in the Pacific. The Bear's aims are different and sometimes in conflict with China. The Bear also wants a small piece of Japanese territory that it actually holds legally at the moment but its legal authority is running out. But the Bear also fears the Dragon. While the Bear and Dragon sometimes cooperate at poking the United States in the eye there is no natural affinity between them. China claims most of Siberia. That dispute is an on again , off again affair between two comparable powers which if put to a contest of conventional arms might be fought to a draw but could go nuclear, in which case no one wins, except perhaps the United States by staying out of it. While the Bear intends to bully Japan out of a small set of northern islands they definitely don't want Japan in the Chinese orbit, much less in some future military alliance with Japan. In some sense the Russian build up in the Pacific is a response to the U.S. naval scale down. The Russians don't fear us or our intentions in the Pacific, they fear our absence because they fear the Dragon's rise. Below is a lead in to a story with important details of the Russian build up by the Diplomat Blogs and below that a hyperlink to the full story
"Russia will begin a naval buildup in the Pacific Ocean next year, a top military official said on Thursday.
In an interview on Russia TV, Rear Admiral Sergei Avakyants, Commander of the Pacific Fleet, said that his fleet would begin receiving new warships next year for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“Rather large-scale deliveries of new equipment, new warships to the Pacific Fleet will start in 2014,” Ria Novosti quoted him as saying."
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