Ill Served

Ill Served

As the Trump administration settles in and begins to formulate their geopolitical strategy, they’ll be looking to the military for viable options for that portion of the spectrum.  China and the South China Sea remain one of the major problem areas that need to be dealt with.  What kind of advice will the military offer?  What options does the Navy propose?  Navy Times details the Navy’s advice (1).

“U.S. Navy and Pacific Command leaders want to ratchet up potentially provocative operations in the South China Sea by sailing more warships near the increasingly militarized man-made islands that China claims as sovereign territory …”

What is the point of these Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPS)?

“U.S. Navy leaders believe that the FONOPS help clarify rights under international law and secure U.S. influence in the region.”

The previous FONOPS operations, those few that occurred, certainly did clarify things.  They clarified the fact that the US would not contest Chinese annexation efforts or hinder China’s illegal island building.  In fact, as we’ve previously discussed, the FONOPS solidified China’s illegal territorial claims by implicitly recognizing China’s sovereignty over the islands!

Did the Navy’s few FONOPS accomplish their goal?  No.  Did the previous administration’s policy of appeasement accomplish its goal?  No.

“I doubt it it's possible to compel China to withdraw from its newly built islands in the Spratlys. But the U.S. could develop a strategy aimed at preventing more land reclamation, capping militarization and deterring China from using its new outposts to intimidate and coerce its neighbors,” Glaser [Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. ] told Navy Times in an interview.”

The Navy defends its previous efforts,

“U.S. Navy officials are quick to point out that the U.S. has been operating there for decades and are maintaining the historic status quo. “

Status quo????  The Navy has stood by while the Chinese have successfully annexed the entire South China Sea!!!  That’s not maintaining the status quo.  That’s watching while a wholesale invasion takes place.

The Navy wants to continue to make carrier deployments to the region.

"There is nothing new about U.S. Navy aircraft carrier strike groups deploying to the western Pacific,” said U.S. 3rd Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Ryan Perry.

“Our strike groups have patrolled the Indo-Asia-Pacific regularly and routinely for more than 70 years and will continue to do so. Regional security, stability and prosperity depend on it,” Perry said. “

Regional stability depends on it???  Again, I’ll point out that previous carrier deployments did nothing to prevent the Chinese from annexing the entire South China Sea.

So, having noted that previous FONOPS and carrier deployments to the South China Sea accomplished absolutely nothing, what is the Navy’s advice to the new administration?  - more FONOPS and more carrier deployments!!!!!

Seriously?  They accomplished nothing so the Navy’s most brilliant advice is to do more of them?  This is the best that our military professionals can come up with?  What a bunch of incompetents. 

President Trump is being ill served by Navy leadership.

Note:  This post is not about the politics of the situation.  It’s about the quality of advice coming from our professional military leaders.  You can agree or disagree with the geopolitics of the situation but the quality of advice is clearly lacking.

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(1)Navy Times website, “The Navy Is Planning Fresh Challenges To China’s Claims In The South China Sea”, David B. Larter, 12-Feb-2017,

https://www.navytimes.com/articles/navy-south-china-sea