US seeks to control entire planet
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is demanding that Vietnam open up all its waters, including Cam Ranh Bay, to US warships. It’s difficult to over-state the hubris of Panetta and those like him in Washington, DC. Imagine going to a foreign country and demanding that they open up all their waters to your warships for the stated goal of supplying your many bases on the opposite side of the Earth. Lolita Balbour has the story for AP:
A day after laying out details of the Pentagon’s new focus on the Asia-Pacific region, Panetta used a visit to Vietnam to restate the United States’ intent to help allies in the region develop and enforce maritime rights in the sea, a waterway largely claimed by China. And he reflected on the significance of the harbor, which represents both a painful past for the American military, and a challenging but hopeful future.
“The new defense strategy that we have put in place for the United States represents a number of key elements that will be tested in the Asia-Pacific region,” Panetta told reporters gathered Sunday under a blazing sun on the deck of the cargo vessel. He said the U.S. would “work with our partners like Vietnam to be able to use harbors like this as we move our ships from our ports on the West Coast towards our stations here in the Pacific.”
Panetta never mentioned China as he spoke to crew members on the Byrd and later to reporters. But with the South China Sea as a backdrop, he made it clear that the U.S. will maintain a strong presence in the region and wants to help allies protect themselves and their maritime rights.
Of course, by ‘allies,’ Panetta means the client governments the US supports in the region. Protecting ‘their maritime rights’ also makes for a convenient excuse to escalating US military presence thousands of miles from home in a move that clearly has nothing to do with defense and everything to do with offense.
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