As predicted in a previous post, the Soviets are testing the Japanese resolve. Consider it an unofficial Shanghai Cooperation Organization military operation. Taking it one step further, in the bigger scheme of things, the aim is two-fold:
1) To sow mistrust between Japan and the United States, whereas America will be portrayed as an ‘unreliable’ partner with no backbone, means or will to help. The military is rapidly disintegrating and can’t even afford to fuel it’s navy.
2) To have Japan gravitate towards an Asian union or eventually be under the SCO protectorate. With a nearly crippled US focusing mainly on a Middle East trap, Japan on its own would surely want to join Russia and China rather than go against it.
Although the Russian jets left Japan’s airspace without incident after a little over a minute, the incursion was significant in both its location and its timing. It happened near territory that has been disputed by Moscow and Tokyo since the end of World War II, when Russia took it from Japan. Japan calls the islands the Northern Territories and Russia calls them the Kurils. The incident occurred on Japan’s “Northern Territories Day,” when Japanese nationals traditionally rally to call for Tokyo to wrest the islands from Russian control.
This provocative Russian incursion into Japanese airspace follows a string of breaches by Chinese forces into separate territories that both Tokyo and Washington recognize as being administered by Japan. Defense and security agreements between the U.S. and Japan would require Washington to back Tokyo in the event of a military confrontation.
But the Obama administration has shown that it is eager to be known as the government that brought America’s troops home. The idea of being drawn into a conflict with China and/or Russia is nearly too unbearable for the war-weary U.S. to contemplate. Understanding this reality has fueled these provocations first from Beijing, and now from Moscow.
Many of the policymakers steering these Asian giants view the outcome of any potential confrontation a question of will more than of military might—and rightly so. On this front, the bloated U.S. is at an overwhelming disadvantage, so the Eastern powers may use the situation as an opportunity to expose America as an unreliable ally to Japan, and to show the world that the U.S. military is a force that can be countered. Such an exposure would send profound geopolitical reverberations across the world.
Full article: Russia Joins China in Provoking U.S. Ally (The Trumpet)
Global Geopolitics 