Thursday, February 16, 2006
US to hold biggest naval exercises in Asia Pacific
WASHINGTON: Amid persistent warnings about China's growing
military clout, the US military said on Tuesday it would
hold one of its biggest naval exercises in the Asia Pacific
this summer.
The large-scale operations will involve several carrier
strike groups, each of which includes at least three
warships, an attack submarine and a support ship.
Four carriers would be involved in three military maritime
exercises - one of them touted as the world's largest -
between June and August in the region, Commander of the US
Pacific Fleet Admiral Gary Roughead said in Washington.
Two of the exercises are expected to be largely confined to
US forces and held in the Western Pacific while the third
involving navies from at least eight countries, including
Australia, Chile, Japan, South Korea and Peru, would occur
near the Hawaiian Islands.
While the war games would boost bilateral and multilateral
cooperation and improve military preparedness, it "also
provides a deterrent for anyone who would wish us ill,"
Roughead told a forum organized by the US-based Asia
Society, which aims to bridge ties between the two sides of
the Pacific.
A major Pentagon review of US military strategy earlier this
month singled out China as the country with the greatest
potential to challenge the United States militarily.
The Quadrennial Defence Review (QDR), conducted every four
years, said a key goal for the US military in the coming
years will be to "shape the choices of countries at a
strategic crossroads"....cont'd
http://tinyurl.com/9mtv4http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\02\16\story_16-2-2006_pg4_5
________________________________
Commentary by Richard Moore:
Friends,
We should all be aware that the primary concern of US
geopolitical planners, along with controlling global oil &
finance, is the ascendency of China. We hear little about
this in the mainstream media because the current policy is
to make money from investments in China, just as the US made
money from investments in Germany prior to WW II. In that
pre-WW II era the media praised a bold "New Germany", and
downplayed the sinister side of the Nazis. As with Germany
then, the time will come when China will suddenly be
portrayed as an Evil Enemy, and the US will turn on China as
it did on Germany.
China is well aware of all this, and for the past decade or
so there has been a momentous arms race going on,
unadvertised but not secret. The US is aiming for a
first-strike capability, while China is aiming for a
comparatively low-cost defensive capability, what they call
an"asymmetric" strategy. The space-weapons programs,
anti-missile defenses, etc., have only China as their
motivation. No other nation poses a serious threat to total
US hegemony.
The attack on Iran, besides being a defense of the
petrodollar, will also be an attack on Chinese ascendency.
China & Iran have been moving closer and closer together,
Iran providing long-term oil contracts, and China providing
investments and modern weapons systems.
In these circumstances, it makes a great deal of sense for
the US to pin down China while the Iran attack is underway.
We can assume that the timing of these exercises matches the
timing of the planned Iran attack: "this summer". Meanwhile
the anti-Muslim, anti-Iran propaganda campaign will
continue to build.
rkm
See also:
http://energybulletin.net/12125.html The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse
by Krassimir Petrov
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