Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mishedlo who wrote (290191)	7/1/2004 5:03:07 PM
From: orkrious	Read Replies (6) \| Respond to of 436258

from russell's web site tonight US plans huge show of force in Pacific Seven aircraft carriers to move within striking distance of China; Taiwan forces slated to join in drill By Ching Cheong The Straits Times HONG KONG - The United States is planning a massive show of force in the Pacific Ocean near China to register a point with Beijing. In an exercise codenamed Operation Summer Pulse 04, it is expected to arrange for an unprecedented seven aircraft carrier strike groups (CSGs) to rendezvous in waters a safe distance away from the Chinese coastline - but still within striking distance - after mid-July. This will be the first time in US naval history that it sends seven of its 12 CSGs to just one region. According to a Department of Defense statement, Summer Pulse is to test out a new Fleet Response Plan (FRP) aimed at enhancing the American Navy's combat power and readiness in a time of crisis. The FRP calls for the despatching of six 'forward deployed' or 'ready to surge' CSGs to a trouble spot within 30 days, and an additional two within 90 days. Although the statement does not say where the seven CSGs will exercise, the Status of the Navy website said the USS Carl Vinson, Abraham Lincoln, John C Stennis and Kitty Hawk were in the Pacific Ocean as of yesterday. The USS Enterprise and Harry Truman are in the Atlantic Ocean while USS George Washington is in the Persian Gulf. According to a posting on Sina.com, an influential website in China, the signs point to a gathering of all seven CSGs in the Pacific. Sources in Beijing say China's reading is that Summer Pulse is being mounted with it as the target audience, a suspicion reinforced by reports that Taiwanese forces are slated to join in the drill. Clearly, given Beijing's repeated warning that it will use force, as a last resort and whatever the cost, to stop Taiwanese independence, the US feels it needs to send Beijing a message. From past deployment patterns, the US usually despatches one CSG to a trouble spot as a reminder of its presence. It did so several times in the past when tension was high in the Taiwan Strait. It sends two to indicate serious concern, as was the case when China test-fired missiles over the strait in 1996. In a combat situation, it deploys three to four, which was what it did in the Gulf War in the early 1990s and the recent Iraqi war. But never before has it sent in peace time seven CSGs to the same theatre. The implications for China are grave. According to Kanwa Defence News, which specialises in Chinese military matters, Beijing can cope with just one CSG currently. 'But in five to 10 years, it can certainly take on seven,' said Mr Chang Hong-yi, head of Kanwa, in an interview with The Straits Times. 'China's military potential is enormous and in terms of military technology, the gap with the US is closing fast,' he added. However, a Chinese military source who declined to be identified is more sanguine. 'Even now, China can easily take on two CSGs,' he said but conceded that there was no way it could face seven all at the same time. This means that if China has to wage war over Taiwan, it has to be able to land and seize control of the island within the first 30 days. Otherwise, under the FRP, six CSGs may well arrive to join in the battle. 'All this leaves China with no choice but to start and end the war with lightning speed,' said the source. Politically, Summer Pulse is likely to be seen by many Chinese as naked intimidation. 'This is gunboat diplomacy in the 21st century,' the source remarked, adding that it would remind the Chinese people of their century-long deep humiliation by Western powers - and put Sino-US relations at peril. =============================================== WHAT THE NUMBERS MEAN: ONE aircraft carrier is sent to a trouble spot as a reminder of US presence. This was done several times in the past, when tension was high in the Taiwan Strait. TWO carriers show serious concern, as was the case when China test-fired missiles over the strait in 1996. THREE OR FOUR are sent in combat situations - as in the Gulf War in the early 1990s and the recent Iraqi war. Sending SEVEN carriers in peace time to the same region is unprecedented. The US plan to do this after mid-July, in the Pacific Ocean near China, is a message to Beijing for its threat to use force to stop Taiwanese independence. Link straitstimes.asia1.com.sg

To: mishedlo who wrote (290191)	7/2/2004 9:22:43 AM
From: Pogeu Mahone	Respond to of 436258

Republicans accuse Kerry of flip-floping????????? H.D.S. GREENWAY Add `sovereignty' to Bush's grand illusions about Iraq By H.D.S. Greenway \| July 2, 2004 PRIME MINISTER Iyad Allawi and his companions in Iraq's transitional government must be wondering what kind of used car they have bought from the Bush administration. They have a sovereignty that is so limited that they do not control their country's air space or its ports. The security forces they do control are so limited, undertrained, and untested that Iraq's new leaders are completely dependent on foreign soldiers even for their very lives. They are being asked to rule a country that has been so reduced by the incompetence of the Americans that very few lights turn on at night in the capital, and security is so bad that US proconsul Paul Bremer had to creep away in a stealth handover, thus denying the Iraqis the ceremonial dignity of the raising of the flag in the full view of the Iraqi nation. Iraq's new leaders have legal control of Saddam Hussein, but not physical custody, which pretty much describes their situation in the country at large. And all of this comes from the Bush team that sold you weapons of mass destruction, a Saddam Hussein-Al Qaeda alliance, and dreams of Iraq as a light unto nations, a US style democracy, and a friend to Israel that the mother of all crooked used car salesmen, Ahmed Chalabi, promised. The Bush administration promised change in the Middle East, but change came in the form of a deeper hatred for the United States, and an Iraq in which only 2 percent of the people view the United States as liberators. The stealth handover seemed to symbolize the entire back-and-forth manner with which the United States has governed Iraq. At first it was going to be retired General Jay Garner as proconsul. But then, after only a month on the job, in came Paul Bremer. At first there was going to be a permanent constitution and general elections before the handover of sovereignty. But then the administration said sovereignty first followed by a constitution and elections. One of Bremer's first acts was to disband the Iraqi army, putting 200,000 men out of work without pensions and unable to support their families. But then, after the damage was done, the United States changed its mind and began paying pensions and trying to reconstitute the army. At first the Marines were going to root out those who had killed and mutilated four American contractors in Fallujah. Then that manhunt was abandoned and Fallujah turned over to a former general in Saddam Hussein's army. At first Moqtada al-Sadr was going to be killed or captured. Then that was dropped and al-Sadr was left at large. At first it was going to be de-Ba'athification. Then it was re-Ba'athification, and on and on. And the Bush administration accuses John Kerry of flip-flops. Indeed the entire history of Bush's intervention in Iraq became a series of fallback positions. When weapons of mass destruction and Saddam's connections with Al Qaeda turned out to be bogus, it was human rights that the administration turned to for justification; an irony for right-wingers who despise using military force for social engineering as something Democrats do. Then, of course, there is the legacy of Abu Ghraib. The problem now will be for Iraq's interim government and its successors to get out from under the image of being American puppets -- something a succession of Saigon governments never managed to do. And they must be wondering if one day they too will be abandoned just as South Vietnam's leaders were. As for the Americans, the State Department now takes over from the Pentagon with the arrival of Ambassador John Negroponte, but the endless problems between civilian and military authority that also hindered America's intervention in Vietnam will now begin. Iraq's new leaders are aware that the American presence itself has become the problem, not the solution. But the profound hope of the Bush administration that Iraq's new government will now take the heat when things go wrong, at least until Nov. 2, may prove just another grand illusion. H.D.S. Greenway's column appears regularly in the Globe. © Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company