Sailing Toward a Storm in China: U.S. Maneuvers Could Spark a War

[GreenPartyVoter]

Quietly and with minimal coverage in the U.S. press, the Navy announced that from mid-July through August it would hold exercises dubbed Operation Summer Pulse '04 in waters off the China coast near Taiwan.

This will be the first time in U.S. naval history that seven of our 12 carrier strike groups deploy in one place at the same time. It will look like the peacetime equivalent of the Normandy landings and may well end in a disaster.

At a minimum, a single carrier strike group includes the aircraft carrier itself (usually with nine or 10 squadrons and a total of about 85 aircraft), a guided missile cruiser, two guided missile destroyers, an attack submarine and a combination ammunition, oiler and supply ship.

Normally, the United States uses only one or at the most two carrier strike groups to show the flag in a trouble spot. In a combat situation it might deploy three or four, as it did for both wars with Iraq. Seven in one place is unheard of.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0715-04.htm

[Media_Lies_Daily]

1. Gee, it's almost like the NeoCons are begging China to attack.

[King_Crimson]

4. They've tried provoking China before...

remember the spy plane incident in the spring of 2001?

[htuttle]

You mean when the Chinese handed our ass to us in a box?

Yeah. That was really impressive...

[Homer12]

2. Could this be the October Surprise?

A war against a real enemy.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. But we can't even beat a fake enemy!

[Homer12]

8. It's not about winning the war, it's about staying in power.

The longer the conflict the more they think people will vote them in, but I guess they really don't care about legitamacy anywya.

It does not matter how many die for their goals and world vision.

[TrogL]

14. Dubya wants to push the button

We already know the code. I doubt if they have changed it otherwise he'd never remember it.

Dubya using more than two nukes would make him the ultimaite "wartime President".

[htuttle]

3. Tactically, this is really stupid...

...considering that China's Sunburn missile sails right past all of our ships' defenses. They could make short work of seven strike groups all grouped in one place.

[Homer12]

7. Good excuse to mobolize the entire USA for real war and use a few nukes?

You know God tells Georgie to push the button.

Why do the neo-cons what another world war?

[jayfish]

12. There Would Be No "Use Of A Few Nukes".

Quite literally the world would end. America would not be allowed to use nukeyouler weapons unchecked by the rest of the worlds nuclear powers (especially with the amount of money the world has wrapped up in China). Global thermonuclear war would ensue and we would be goners.

Jay

[jayfish]

9. It' Strategically And Tactically Stupid.

If anything went down and those carriers were lost (even damaged), the world would burn for it. The US would have very little ability to project power on a global scale without brandishing it's nukeyouler sword. It would be a military disaster of epic proportions, one not seen since the Greeks routed the Persians in the battle of Salamis. Idiots

Jay

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. I am praying the Chinese gov't has more sense than ours, and refuses

to take the bait.

Still, I find it curious that * was unwilling to defend Tawainese soverignty earlier this year even just verbally, but now we have a carrier group over that way. Are we going to start something over Taiwan? Are we screwing with North Korea's head? What's going on here?

[jayfish]

15. Thats The Problem. We See it As What Might...

or might not make sense and I think the Chinese would see it as having to do something as a face saving measure. We have people in office who don't know jack about the world outside of 1945-1990. I hope your right though.

Jay

[eagler]

5. Walmart would not let this happen.

nt

[xchrom]

11. now that was funny!

[maggrwaggr]

18. Ha! You took the words right out of my mouth!

The shelves at WalMart would be empty.

My guess -- we are now telling China we'll support them if they want to invade Taiwan.

China has us by the balls now.

[Bonhomme Richard]

13. It would certainly even things up..................

if we didn't have much of a navy left. The whole thing doesn't make any sense to me and at best is a reckless endangerment of a large portion of our surface fleet.
Why in the world would you put that many ships in one area? The only thing that would make sense to me is that it is just the kind of "show of force" that someone in a weakened position would risk.
It's raising the ante to force the other guy out of the game because you don't have enough chips for sustained playing.

[resist]

16. Gosh, guys; not sure this is funny

Call me dumb but this is the first I've heard of this and it seems pretty scary . Is this just internet propaganda or something to be trusted?

Kind of surprised there aren't more responses.

[sangh0]

17. Sensational hysteria mongering

This is a "show of force" or "gunboat diplomacy". It is NOT a military action and is NOT going to start a war. We (and others) have engaged in similar displays of might in the past, and it has never started a war.

This is how we tell China, and others, "Even though we are at war in Afghanistan and Iraq, you shouldn't think you're free to do what you want. We can still project power whereever we want to on this planet"

If China were to attack these carrier groups, they would end up being a glass parking lot, and the know that. IOW, it's not going to happen.