RINF<\/a>) – US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter is willing to risk a war with China in order to defend \u201cfreedom of navigation\u201d in the South China Sea. Speaking in Honolulu, Hawaii on Wednesday, Carter issued his \u201cmost forceful\u201d warning yet, demanding \u201can immediate and lasting halt to land reclamation\u201d by China in the disputed Spratly Islands.<\/p>\nCarter said:\u00a0 \u201cThere should be no mistake: The United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, as we do all around the world.\u201d He also added that the United States intended to remain \u201cthe principal security power in the Asia-Pacific for decades to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
In order to show Chinese leaders \u201cwho\u2019s the boss\u201d, Carter has threatened to deploy US warships and surveillance aircraft to within twelve miles of the islands that China claims are within their territorial waters. Not surprisingly, the US is challenging China under the provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a document the US has stubbornly refused to ratify. But that\u2019s neither here nor there for the bellicose Carter whose insatiable appetite for confrontation makes him the most reckless Sec-Def since Donald Rumsfeld.<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s this really all about? Why does Washington care so much about a couple hundred yards of sand piled up on reefs reefs in the South China Sea? What danger does that pose to US national security? And, haven\u2019t Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines all engaged in similar \u201cland reclamation\u201d activities without raising hackles in DC?<\/p>\n
Of course, they have. The whole thing is a joke. Just like Carter\u2019s claim that he\u2019s defending the lofty principal of \u201cfreedom of navigation\u201d is a joke. China has never blocked shipping lanes or seized boats sailing in international waters. Never. The same cannot be said of the United States that just recently blocked an Iranian ship loaded with humanitarian relief\u2014food, water and critical medical supplies\u2014headed to starving refugees in Yemen. Of course, when the US does it, it\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n
The point is, Washington doesn\u2019t give a hoot about the Spratly Islands; it\u2019s just a pretext to slap China around and show them who\u2019s running the show in their own backyard. Carter even admits as much in his statement above when he says that the US plans to be \u201cthe principal security power in the Asia-Pacific for decades to come.\u201d China knows what that means. It means \u201cThis is our planet, so you\u2019d better shape up or you\u2019re going to find yourself in a world of hurt.\u201d That\u2019s exactly what it means.<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s cut to the chase and try to explain what\u2019s really going on, because pretty soon no one is going to be talking about Ukraine, Syria or Yemen because all eyes are going to be focused on China where our madhatter Secretary of Defense is trying to start a third world war.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the scoop: Washington has abandoned its China policy of \u201ccontainment\u201d and moved on to Plan B: Isolation, intimidation and confrontation. In my opinion, this is why the powerbrokers behind Obama dumped Hagel. Hagel just wasn\u2019t hawkish enough for the job. They wanted a died-in-the-wool, warmongering neocon, like Carter, who is, quite likely, the most dangerous man in the world.<\/p>\n
Carter\u2019s assignment is to implement the belligerent new policy of incitement and conflict. His actions will prove to the skeptics that Washington is no longer interested in integrating China into the US-led system. Rather, China has become a the biggest threat to Washington\u2019s plan to pivot to Asia. And, just to remind readers how important the pivot is to America\u2019s future, here\u2019s an Obama quote I lifted up from Tom Engelhardt\u2019s latest titled \u201cSuperpower in Distress\u201d:<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter a decade in which we fought two wars that cost us dearly, in blood and treasure, the United States is turning our attention to the vast potential of the Asia Pacific region\u2026.As we end today\u2019s wars, I have directed my national security team to make our presence and mission in the Asia Pacific a top priority.\u201d<\/p>\n
The so called pivot is Washington\u2019s \u201ctop priority\u201d, which means that China\u2019s unprecedented ascendency must be slowed and its regional influence curtailed. Thus, the dust up over the Spratly Islands will be used in the same way the US has used other incidents, that is, by demonizing China\u2019s leaders in the media, by assembling a coalition that will publicly oppose China\u2019s activities, by implementing harsh economic sanctions, by launching asymmetrical attacks on China\u2019s currency and financial markets, by excluding China from critical trade agreements, and by inciting social unrest (color-coded revolution) through the support of dissidents living in China. These are the all-too-familiar signs of US meddling directed at \u201cemerging rivals\u201d who threaten US global hegemony. China now finds itself at the top of the list.<\/p>\n
US powerbrokers know that bullying China involves significant risks for themselves and the world. Even so, they have decided to pursue this new policy and force a confrontation. Why? Why would they embark on a strategy so fraught with danger?<\/p>\n
The answer is: They don\u2019t see any way around it. They\u2019ve tried containment and it hasn\u2019t worked. China\u2019s growing like crazy and its regional influence threatens to leave the US on the outside looking in. Carter even admitted as much in a recent speech he gave at the McCain Institute at Arizona State University. He said: \u201cWe already see countries in the region trying to carve up these markets\u2026forging many separate trade agreements in recent years, some based on pressure and special arrangements\u2026. Agreements that\u2026..leave us on the sidelines. That risks America\u2019s access to these growing markets. We must all decide if we are going to let that happen. If we\u2019re going to help boost our exports and our economy\u2026and cement our influence and leadership in the fastest-growing region in the world; or if, instead, we\u2019re going to take ourselves out of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
See? It\u2019s all about markets. It\u2019s all about money. Here\u2019s more from Carter\u2019s speech: (The) \u201d Asia-Pacific\u2026is the defining region for our nation\u2019s future\u201d\u2026 \u201cHalf of humanity will live there by 2050\u00e2\u20ac\u00b3 and that \u201cmore than half of the global middle class and its accompanying consumption will come from that region.\u201d\u2026.\u201dThere are already more than 525 million middle class consumers in Asia, and we expect there to be 3.2 billion in the region by 2030\u2026President Obama and I want to ensure that\u2026 businesses can successfully compete for all these potential customers. \u2026.Over the next century, no region will matter more\u2026 for American prosperity.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is why the Obama administration is making a general nuisance of itself in the South China Sea. It\u2019s so the big US mega-corporations will have new customers for their IPADs and toaster ovens.<\/p>\n
For that, they are willing to risk a nuclear war.<\/p>\n
Mike Whitney\u00a0lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to\u00a0Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion\u00a0(AK Press).\u00a0Hopeless is also available in a\u00a0Kindle edition.\u00a0He can be reached at\u00a0fergiewhitney@msn.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Whitney (RINF) – US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter is willing to risk a war with China in order to defend \u201cfreedom of navigation\u201d in the South China Sea. Speaking in Honolulu, Hawaii on Wednesday, Carter issued his \u201cmost forceful\u201d warning yet, demanding \u201can immediate and lasting halt to land reclamation\u201d by China in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-156510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}