Nervous Leaders Unite! Obama is switching his gaze to Asia. I do not know about Asian leaders, but if I was an Asian leader I would get very, very nervous.
How are things going for Obama elsewhere?
US troops have been kicked out of Iraq. The second the troops leave Afghanistan, the Taliban will return. The attempted CIA coup in Ukraine is not going well, for some reason the Ukrainian army is not professional enough to fire on civilians so a more "professional" army is needed.
There is only so much the American mercenaries from Blackwater (now Graystone) can do! Since the encirclement of Russia is going so well, let's now encircle China.
From Reuters:
Friction between China and the Philippines and other states in the region, over disputed territories in the South China Sea has increased since last year despite diplomatic efforts to forge an agreement on maritime conduct.
The dispute revolves round competing claims over the Spratlys, a group of 250 uninhabitable islets spread over 165,000 square miles.
On Sunday, three Chinese coast guard ships stopped two Filipino civilian vessels from delivering food, water and construction materials to troops based on a ship that was deliberately run aground on reef in the Spratlys in 1999 to reinforce the Philippines' claim.
So after an obvious provocation by the Philippine government, the US decides to support Philippines by moving troops there. I predict more bar girls.
"It will not stop China from its bullying tactics, but it will become more cautious and might exercise self-restraint due to the U.S. presence," Rommel Banlaoi, an analyst at Philippine Institute of Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research, said.
Maybe I am easily amused, ... but Institute of Peace! Orwell would be pleased.
There is great dispute among China, Japan, and Philippines over these islands. It looks like the US will support Philippines—a nice divot.
Or maybe not. From the Guardian:
The US is duty-bound to come to Japan’s aid in the event of a conflict with China over a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea, Barack Obama declared at the start of a tour of Asia aimed at reassuring Washington’s allies in the face of threats to stability from North Korea and an increasingly assertive China.
So apparently Obama has managed to support the Philippine and Japanese claim on these islands at the same time. What a divot!
Yes, let's undermine the one main accomplishment of the Nixon administration and bring China and Russia closer together.
Yes, I know it is a pivot to Asia not a divot, but I wanted to use terms Obama can understand, so a golf term seemed the best. A divot in golf means you did not properly swing the club. I do not know how big a divot Obama is causing, but considering the small size of these islands, Obama's divot might be bigger than they are.
div·ot
ˈdivət/
noun a piece of turf cut out of the ground by a golf club in making a stroke.