ARMS RACE IN ASIAN-PACIFIC UNDERWAY AS U.S. ENCIRCLES CHINA

People from the South Korean peace movement have been protesting this week against U.S. and South Korean combined war exercises called Key Resolve-Foal Eagle. The U.S. Pacific Command conducts these exercises to rehearse the implementation of Operational Plan 5027 (OPLAN 5027). The Plan's goal is to occupy North Korea, change the North Korean regime, and destroy the North Korean Peoples Army.

It has been reported that 27,000 U.S. troops and the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier are involved in the war game.

The South Korean peace group called SPARK (a Global Network affiliate) says, "We think these aggressive, first-strike rehearsal exercises work against peaceful efforts to reduce tension on the Korean peninsula, such as the 6-Party Talks and the current visit of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra to Pyongyang, North Korea."

There is little doubt that the U.S. is dramatically escalating tensions in the Asian-Pacific region. Current U.S. Naval presence is being doubled by expanding operations in Guam, Australia, South Korea and Japan. Not only is the U.S. encircling North Korea but the new military strategy also calls for the surrounding of China as well.

China has a fossil fuel dependent economy and imports 80% of its oil through the Taiwan Straits. Thus they have a high need to be able to keep that pathway open and free so oil tankers can move easily to port. The Pentagon is now developing a military strategy to enable the U.S. to choke off China's oil imports by controlling the Taiwan Straits. By doing this the U.S. feels they would essentially control China by holding the keys to its economic engine.

Like any country would, China is now expanding its ability to keep the Taiwan Straits open. As China expands its military operations in that area the U.S. declares that they are preparing to attack Taiwan and this justifies even more Pentagon spending in the region as the U.S. says "we must protect Taiwan from Chinese aggression."

China is not likely to invade Taiwan since they have now developed huge economic ties with each other. Nor is China likely to attack the U.S., one of their best markets, especially as they today only have 20 nuclear missiles capable of hitting the west coast of the continental U.S. Of course the U.S. now has more than 10,000 nuclear weapons in our own "arsenal of hypocrisy."

Conversely, the U.S. Navy is now deploying Aegis destroyers all along the coast of China and these ships are outfitted with "missile defense" systems that would be used to pick off any Chinese nuclear missiles that were launched in retaliation after a U.S. first-strike attack. Each year for the past several years the Space Command has been computer war gaming a first-strike attack on China. Set in the year 2016 the Pentagon launches a devastating attack on China using as its first weapon the military space plane that is now under development and would fly to the other side of the world in just two hours.

A Pentagon report came out this week declaring that China was undertaking a massive military buildup and is preparing to "develop the ability to attack an adversary's space assets."

China's military budget is now less than $60 billion a year. Compare that with the current U.S. military budget of $650 billion a year. Then factor in the $30 billion a year in the Pentagon's secret "black budget" which is used for high-tech space weapons development that Congress is not even allowed to know about. Then add in the NSA, NRO, DoE, NASA and other budgets that have military applications and the true figure of U.S. military spending is nearly $1 trillion a year.

China is hardly a threat to the U.S. today. But it is true that as China sees the U.S. dramatically expanding its own military presence in the Asian-Pacific they are indeed upgrading their ability to defend their nation. Imagine if China was now building bases in Canada and Mexico and deploying ships off the east and west coasts of the U.S. Wouldn't the American public become alarmed? When the U.S. does the same to China isn't it then logical that China will respond?

Of course the true winner in all of this military expansion is the military industrial complex. They understand that a new arms race in the Asian-Pacific will ensure that an arms race in space will follow as China launches more military satellites to coordinate their growing military.

Huge profits are to be made from this new arms race. The American and Chinese people and taxpayers are the sure losers.