The police
reported that a boy was seen carry a pen knife in the vicinity. The police
claimed that the boy was dangerous, carrying a very dangerous weapon. Then the
police sent in their forces, armed with machine guns, rocket launchers,
armoured cars, tanks and F35 fighter aircraft, B52 nuclear bombers, to look for
the dangerous boy. The police said they are for peace and their heavy weapons
are for peace, the boy and his pen knife is disturbing the peace and very
dangerous to peace and stability in the neighbourhood. You can substitute the
word ‘gangster’ for the word ‘police’ for the real picture. Who is more
dangerous, the police/gangster or the boy?
This is
exactly what the Americans are saying and doing in the South China Sea and the Asia Pacific region. They
are accusing China of militarizing the region with a
few batteries of defensive missiles. Even if China were to build a military
base in the South China Sea to the size of Diego Garcia or Guam, it is not only
legitimate, it would be just like a pin in the ocean compares to what the
Americans are doing and building in the region.
Below is a brief
extract from a book ' Rebalancing U.S. Forces: Basing and Forward Presence in the
Asia-Pacific’ by Carnes Lord and Andrew Erickson.
Erickson
and Justin D. Mikolay begin the book’s examination on Guam . Political constraints
and friction with allies and partners around the region have led U.S. military planners to
look to Guam , U.S. territory on the edge of
the Western Pacific battle space and an island whose residents and political
leaders, unlike those on Okinawa , actually clamor for a
larger military presence. The result is plans to greatly expand the basing of
submarines, airpower, and Marines on the island,…. Singapore is now the key logistics
and maintenance hub for Navy and Air Force operations in the South China Sea , and is the critical
gateway for the U.S. presence into the
eastern Indian Ocean ….. American bases abroad are one of the clearest
manifestations of the United States ’ own brand of
imperialism, deny or disguise it though it will…. In Japan alone there are 109
American bases and another 89 in South Korea . And there are bases
in Thailand and the Philippines as well.
And the US deployed 325,000
military personnel in Asia and Africa according to Global Research, 97,000 in
Asia, 40,258 in South Korea, 40,045 in Japan, 491 in Diego Garcia, 100 in the
Philippines and increasing, 113 in Thailand, 195 in Singapore, 200 in Australia,
16,600 afloat in ships and aircraft carriers
With the pervasive presence
of American bases in the region, who is the one that is militarising the region
and South China Sea ? Who
is more dangerous, the boy or the police/gangster? Who carries more destructive
weapons and is more deadly? The US is
crying wolf at the sigh of a tree when they are hiding behind a forest.