Seven carriers assembled off China, not.

Gunboat diplomacy near China last hurrah of the neocons, Chalmers Johnson of the LA Times, July 19, 2004

This will be the first time in U.S. naval history that seven of our 12 carrier strike groups deploy in one place at the same time. It will look like the peacetime equivalent of the Normandy landings and may well end in a disaster.
...
According to Chinese reports, Taiwanese ships will join the seven carriers being assembled in this modern rerun of 19th century gunboat diplomacy.

U.S. Navy - Status of the Navy, July 23, 2004

Carriers:
USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) - Pacific Ocean
USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) - Persian Gulf
USS George Washington (CVN 73) - Atlantic Ocean
USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) - port visit, Pearl Harbor
USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) - Atlantic Ocean

Chalmers Johnson doesn't seem to understand that the carriers are deployed at about the same time, but to different locations throughout the world.

Summer Pulse '04 is about sending a message to China about the US Navy's ability to respond quickly, but it's not the start of a major attack.

-HJC

Or they'll stop selling stuff to K-Mart?

China warns US to stop arms sales to Taiwan or risk bilateral ties growth, Agence France Presse, 14 July 2004

China warned the United States to stop selling advanced arms to Taiwan and cut military links with the island if it wanted any improvement in bilateral relations.

Missile tests fuel Taiwan’s tension, Daily Times of Pakistan, 14 July 2004

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is to stage a mock invasion of Taiwan this month, with SU-27 fighters battling for air superiority and supporting an amphibious landing in land, sea and air exercises on Dongshan island, less than 300 km (200 miles) from Taiwanese soil, state media said.

China hits at US moves over Taiwan, Financial Times, July 14 2004

The remarks come as the Taiwanese legislature prepares to debate an $18bn (£9.7bn) proposal to purchase submarines, anti-missile equipment and anti-submarine aircraft from the US. The opposition Kuomintang is expected to attempt to block or delay legislative approval for the package, which was approved by the Taiwanese cabinet in June.

I think the Kuomintang is going to lose that vote if China keeps up the pressure. After all, firing missiles towards Taiwan worked so well in 1996.

And the United States is so easy to push around, just ask Britain, the CSA, the Spanish Empire, Imperial or Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, North Korea, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, etc.

I'm not worried about China's Peaceful Rise, because I'm sure they're going to mess it up.

The pity is that "One China" more or less works and it's been trade and investment from Taiwan that has fueled China's rise to date.

So go ahead and mess with the bald eagle, if you want to find out what your place in the global pecking order really is.

-HJC

Pearl Harbor's Radar Warning

Long history of intelligence failures, BBC, 11 July 2004

The US Congress issued a stinging report because no adequate steps were taken in Pearl Harbor itself to cover against an attack.

Although the radar station picked up the approach of the Japanese aircraft, nobody could interpret the signs and there were no aircraft ready to repel them.

There were plenty of aircraft near Pearl Harbor. More were expected that day.

That's why no alarm went out. The radar operators had no way of telling friendly from hostile aircraft.

Which lead to the development of IFF during World War II.

-HJC

Battle between the 21st century monitors and the USS Virginia

During the American Civil War, the United States Navy launched the first of a new breed of littoral combatants.

The USS Monitor was a small stealthy ship with advanced armament and was armored to face the close in battles of the littorals.

The ship was successful at operating in a hostile littoral area and kept the CSS Virginia bottled up.

The 21st century equivalent to the USS Monitor is the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and lots of people in the media seem to believe it will do battle with the USS Virginia class of submarines for budget dollars.

Submarine fleet seen as shrinking in near term, Providence Journal, July 7, 2004

Third, submarines are not among the programs that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his chief of naval operations, Adm. Vern Clark, have identified as top spending priorities. Higher on the wish list, for example, is the development of the new "littoral combat ship," a small, fast, relatively cheap vessel that can fight near shore.

The LCS and the Virginia seem to be in competition for the same role. They both use stealth to close in on the enemy shore so they can deploy unmanned vehicles and sensors.

And yet the two classes are entirely complementary.

The USS Virginia as a submarine has a higher level of stealth than any surface ship, but it cannot operate surface or air craft and is restricted from doing missions such as boarding specious ships and while the LCS can travel in much shallower water, it lacks the Virginia's long range firepower in cruise missiles and torpedoes.

A squadron of three LCS backed by a single Virginia class submarine can do things that neither could apart. The LCS can act as the eyes and hands on the surface using their speed and air assets to strike and withdraw while the submarine lurks ready to apply decisive force.

If the 21st century monitors team up with the Virginias then the US Navy will be the clear winner.

-HJC

Draft is for Beer

Why we need to resurrect draft in America

But the nation also needs a draft because it is one proven mechanism to bring unity to our rapidly separating parts. It needs a draft to provide that common civic grammar that encompasses those who have served and their families and friends.

If there wasn't a war on, I might see the point of using a draft to advance some social goal.

I could think of a lot of far less expensive ways of introducing people. Give scholarships to the needy and they will rub shoulders with the best and brightest. And best of all the Pell Grant program runs less than five percent of the defense budget, because it's a lot cheaper to buy books instead of tanks.

But we are in a war and it is the most dangerous war America has ever been in.

The Axis powers were stopped before they could develop weapons of greater destruction than nerve gas.

The Cold War always had a return address. Perhaps the USSR and the PRC didn't always make the wisest choices, but they always knew that we knew where they were.

And now we face a shadowy enemy who finds virtue in any murder of innocents and the bigger the scale of the carnage the better.

There is no retreat with honor or even our skins from this fight.

If this war is over by 2020, we will have lost and America won't be here anymore.

Iraq is only today's battleground and we must win the hearts and minds of all of the islamic states.

If we just throw bodies at this problem they will return as corpses and on the way to their body bags they will leave a trail of destruction that hardens hearts against us.

We must put our best and brightest forwards into the line of fire so that they can find a way through to the other side.

This requires a slimed down professional transformed military that strikes for effect, not mass.

-HJC

Littoral Combat Ships on Oil patrol.

Massing ships around Iraq's two terminals has been effective so far, says Capt. Kurt Tidd, commander of the Navy task force in charge of protecting the terminals. But the world's oil infrastructure is vast. "We can line up all the ships in the world around all the platforms in the world, and we're going to run out of ships."

If the US Navy wants to protect the flow of oil from Africa and the Persian Gulf and interdict terrorists on the high seas worldwide then it's going to need a bunch of cheap and versatile ships, hence the LCS.

-HJC

Teach a man to build steel sharks and you've got a proliferation problem.

Arms needed for cross-strait balance, China Post, July 3rd, 2004

Lee said yesterday U.S. officials said Washington was willing to help Taiwan obtain the submarines but not willing to assist Taiwan develop the capacity to build them.

Apparently the United States has said no the the request.

-HJC