Some are going a bit silly in praising Obama for sending two B-52s out to take a giant shit on China's new air security zone - sorry, he did the right thing, sure, but this was a no brainer - you had to do this, hanging Japan out to dry by not doing it would have been utterly inexcusable and would have risked inviting the rapid incubation of some pretty lethal toxins. This could still very easily go wobbly but, yes, Obama got this one right - but it's pretty gratuitous to congratulate someone for doing the obvious, where the only other choice was a complete dereliction of duty - a person gets up in the morning and brushes their teeth ya don't give 'em a standing ovation.
The curious thing here is that a while ago I speculated that Obama having established himself as a weak foreign policy president who either distrusts, is wary of, or outright dislikes the conventional aspects of American power, I speculated that China might view this weakness as an opportunity to be exploited and thereby be tempted into doing something ill advised - I wonder if that's what we're seeing here - because China now risks looking weak and foolish themselves - they only have two options seems to me: back down, with various equivocations etc etc; or attempt to goad Japan into doing something intemperate that turns up the heat and will require from Obama a much, much more difficult and perilous decision which he then possibly mishandles. You know China will be loathe to back down [their version of Twitter is already full of contempt for the cowardly politburo's refusal to I guess take on a couple of B-52s] - so... like I said, this thing could still go quite wobbly.
[or do we assume that China would certainly realize that US had no choice but to push back on this provocation and that therefore this is just the first move in a series of gambits? The B-52s were the right play by Dear Leader - but you can't stop there. The point needs to be driven home because otherwise China will play the long game of prodding and plying until resistance falls and they assume the thing they want, daring you to deny them it - I'd fly daily patrols through the disputed zone from now until whenever - hell, I'd establish a little Marine base on the Senkakus - but then I'm a bit crazy that way]
The curious thing here is that a while ago I speculated that Obama having established himself as a weak foreign policy president who either distrusts, is wary of, or outright dislikes the conventional aspects of American power, I speculated that China might view this weakness as an opportunity to be exploited and thereby be tempted into doing something ill advised - I wonder if that's what we're seeing here - because China now risks looking weak and foolish themselves - they only have two options seems to me: back down, with various equivocations etc etc; or attempt to goad Japan into doing something intemperate that turns up the heat and will require from Obama a much, much more difficult and perilous decision which he then possibly mishandles. You know China will be loathe to back down [their version of Twitter is already full of contempt for the cowardly politburo's refusal to I guess take on a couple of B-52s] - so... like I said, this thing could still go quite wobbly.
[or do we assume that China would certainly realize that US had no choice but to push back on this provocation and that therefore this is just the first move in a series of gambits? The B-52s were the right play by Dear Leader - but you can't stop there. The point needs to be driven home because otherwise China will play the long game of prodding and plying until resistance falls and they assume the thing they want, daring you to deny them it - I'd fly daily patrols through the disputed zone from now until whenever - hell, I'd establish a little Marine base on the Senkakus - but then I'm a bit crazy that way]