Japan Returns to Militarism

 

On December 11 Japan’s Kyodo News Agency reported that “Japan plans to effectively upgrade its helicopter carriers to enable them to transport and launch fighter jets.” Concurrently the Indian Ministry of Defence noted that in the course of a large exercise being held in India by the US and Indian air forces, “two military pilots from Japan are also taking part in the exercise as observers.” There was also a Reuter’s account of Tokyo’s plans “to boost defence spending over the next five years to help pay for new stealth fighters and other advanced US military equipment.”

John Lehman: China, Russia, Iran threaten ‘New Pearl Harbor’

John F. Lehman. Photo: US Naval War College

 

The former US Navy Secretary insists that the main weakness in Navy preparedness is a painfully slow weapons procurement system

Former US Navy Secretary John F. Lehman has warned in an exclusive interview with Asia Times that the US faces the danger of a “New Pearl Harbor from growing cooperation between China, Russia and Iran that is marked by increased military and technology sharing.

“China, Russia and Iran are doing joint naval exercises and they are sharing anti-aircraft and antisubmarine technology,” Lehman said. “They don’t have to be allies. They figure if they carry out their designs in co-ordinated fashion that this will stretch the US so thin that we can’t deal with it — and that is the worry right now.”

Report: North Korean EMP attack would devastate Hawaii

Hawaii is home to 11 military bases and U.S. Pacific Command’s HQ.

 

Defense analysts said Hawaii could be targeted by North Korea, which continues to develop its nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile capabilities, Military.com reported on May 13.

Hawaii is seen as a desirable target as it is headquarters for U.S. Pacific Command and has 11 military bases, including Pearl Harbor, said Dean Cheng, senior research fellow with the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation.

Fourth breakdown in US Navy littoral combat ship

The USS Independence (LCS 2), left, and USS Coronado (LCS 4) steam in the Pacific Ocean. The two are of the Independence variant LCS. Ships of this variant are 416.8 feet in length with a beam of 103.7 feet and a displacement of 3,100 metric tons.

 

(CNN) Less than two days after the US Navy revealed a third mechanical breakdown in a year of one of its $360 million littoral combat ships, the service has announced a fourth.

The USS Coronado was on its way back to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, after suffering an “engineering casualty,” a Navy statement said. It said it expected to reveal more about what happened after an inspection once the ship returned to port. The ship was heading to an independent deployment in the western Pacific when the mishap occurred. It had departed Hawaii on Friday.

Chinese Submarine Practiced Missile Attack on USS Reagan

A Chinese nuclear submarine sails past Yalong Bay / AP

 

Cruise missile targeting of carrier risked naval shootout

A Chinese attack submarine conducted a simulated cruise missile attack on the aircraft carrier USS Reagan during a close encounter several weeks ago, according to American defense officials.

The targeting incident near the Sea of Japan in October violated China’s 2014 commitment to the multinational Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea, known as CUES, designed to reduce the risk of a shooting incident between naval vessels, said officials familiar with details of the encounter they described as “serious.”

Would China Launch a “Pearl Harbor-Style” Strike on America?

Whether the Chinese would launch a Pearl Harbor-style attack on America is debatable only by those who never learned from history and refuse to see the events building before their very eyes today. The CCP and PLA make quite clear in the following previous posts their objectives:

War Is Not Far from Us and Is the Midwife of the Chinese Century

China’s Military Threatens America: ‘We Will Hurt You’

China’s leader is telling the People’s Liberation Army to prepare for war

 

“Our military battle preparation appears to aim at Taiwan, but in fact is aimed at the United States, and the preparation is far beyond the scope of attacking aircraft carriers or satellites.”

– Chinese Defense Minister Chi Haotian, December 2005.

 

 

If Imperial Japan’s past turns out to be a Rising China’s prologue, Beijing could well order a Pearl Harbor-style attack on America, possibly within a decade.  Potential targets range from American aircraft carriers in the Taiwan Strait and bombers on the runways of Okinawa and Guam to the military satellite network serving as the eyes and ears of the U.S. high command.  Even civilian infrastructure like America’s electricity grid may be at risk.

If you believe that prediction to be alarmist, consider these historical parallels with another rising Asian power during the early 20th century.

December 7, 1941—A Lesson We Can’t Afford to Forget

 

The lesson from Pearl Harbor is more relevant today than ever before.

PLA warships off Alaska a ‘smart strategic move’: Duowei

According to Pentagon sources, the five PLA vessels — comprising three surface combatants, an amphibious warship and a fleet oiler — made an “innocent passage” passing within 12 nautical miles of the Aleutian Islands that border the southern edge of the Bering Sea on Sept. 2….

While the Chinese military often conducts missions in the Gulf of Aden and the Strait of Malacca as well as the East China and South China seas, this marks the first time PLA ships have been spotted near Alaska. Prior to this, the closest PLA vessels have approached to the US mainland was to participate in the US-led Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC), the world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise, held every two years around Hawaii.

China Is ‘Leading Suspect’ in Massive Hack of US Government Networks

Speaking at a forum in Washington, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper warned of the danger posed by a capable adversary like the Chinese government.

“You have to kind of salute the Chinese for what they did,” Clapper said.

At least 18 million people — and potentially tens of millions more around the world, including relatives, friends and associates of those who had background checks conducted by the U.S. government — may have had their personal information stolen when hackers broke into the systems of the Office of Personnel Management, authorities have said.

The Pentagon’s $10-billion bet gone bad

Leaders of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency were effusive about the new technology.

It was the most powerful radar of its kind in the world, they told Congress. So powerful it could detect a baseball over San Francisco from the other side of the country.

If North Korea launched a sneak attack, the Sea-Based X-Band Radar — SBX for short — would spot the incoming missiles, track them through space and guide U.S. rocket-interceptors to destroy them.

Crucially, the system would be able to distinguish between actual missiles and decoys.

SBX “represents a capability that is unmatched,” the director of the Missile Defense Agency told a Senate subcommittee in 2007.

In reality, the giant floating radar has been a $2.2-billion flop, a Los Angeles Times investigation found.

Navy Intel Officer Warns of Future China Conflict

Calls for telling the truth about Beijing

HONOLULU—China’s ruling Communist Party is “rejuvenating” and preparing for a military conflict in Asia, the outgoing intelligence chief of the Navy’s Pacific Fleet is warning.

“The strategic trend lines indicate the Communist Party of China is not only ‘rejuvenating’ itself for internal stability purposes, but has been and continues to prepare to use military force,” Navy Capt. James E. Fanell said on Saturday during his retirement speech at Pearl Harbor.

Speaking on a pier across the harbor from the battleship USS Missouri, where Japan’s surrender was signed ending World War II, and near the memorial over the submerged wreckage of the USS Arizona, sunk in 1941 during the Japanese attack, Fanell said he believes Beijing prefers not to use its growing military force for achieving regional dominance.

The Currency Wars’ “Pearl Harbor”

Switzerland had just abandoned its peg of the Swiss Franc to the Euro. The result was mayhem with an immediate 30% drop in the value of the Euro against the Franc, and billions of dollars of trading losses by banks and investors around the world.Several foreign exchange brokers went bankrupt because their customers could not settle their losing trades. The Swiss operated in total secrecy.

Currency wars resemble real wars in the sense that they do not involve continuous fighting all the time. At certain times, there are intense battles, followed by lulls, followed by more intense battles.

Opening Moscow’s Bag of Political and Strategic Tricks

Political correctness was invented by Marxists to destroy Western society from inside…. And in Russia, there is no political correctness at all! The reason is that Marxists do not need to undermine the Russian society from the inside, because it is already Marxist.

– Konstantin Preobrazhensky, “How the West Was Fooled by Vladimir Putin”

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Then there is Russia’s military potential. With regard to major opponents, the West seriously underestimated its enemies twice during the last century: first in 1939 when the Allies believed they had boxed in Nazi Germany with their “guarantee” to Poland; and again, with sanctions on Japan in 1941. In the first instance Germany smashed Poland and crushed France. In the second instance, Japan destroyed the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, defeated the U.S. forces in the Philippines and captured the British forces in Singapore.

Some may argue that Russians are not as capable as Germans and Japanese. After all, Russia is a backward country; the Russian economy stinks; Russian equipment is obsolete and their people are demoralized. Even more egregious, Russian commanders are political stooges. But wait! Russia put the first man into space. Russia launched the first satellite. Russia built the first operational version of the hydrogen bomb. Let’s not make the mistake of underestimating Russia.

The Failure of the American Perspective

World War III may well be underway just as surely as it was on 26 November 1941 when Japanese Admiral Yamamoto set sail for Pearl Harbor two weeks before the formal attack. Then, like now, Americans seemed blissfully unaware that their lives were about to change forever.

Now, it is even worse, as American arrogance assumes we will always be the world’s sole superpower. We tend to look at the world exclusively from our own perspective and that can be very dangerous. A variety of headlines demonstrate this, all of which assume American supremacy. One example, now obvious in hindsight, is when the President’s spokesman Jay Carney warned against buying and actually suggested shorting Russian stocks in light of U.S. sanctions on March 18. From the time of his comments until the end of the month, Russian stocks increased over 6%, far ahead of the U.S. stock market over the same period. Even as the Administration was warning against buying Russian shares, some very successful investors have recommended them.

Did Navy Make Pearl Harbor Mistake Again?

A photo of five U.S. nuclear aircraft carriers docked in Norfolk, Va., the world’s largest naval station, has gone viral on the Internet amid speculation the ships could be sitting ducks for a Pearl Harbor-type attack or were docked due to sequestration.

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The photo first appeared in early February amid concerns that having the carriers lined up in one location breached long-standing Navy protocol.