By Greg Austin
The military edginess that the DoD has been consistently displaying over the South China Sea appears to be overkill.
Australians woke to the news last Friday that the United States would be sending long-range B-1 strike bomber aircraft to the southern hemisphere country to help deter China’s intentions in the South China Sea. As the Middle East and its people face escalating wars and civil strife, as the world stares down terrorism from Islamic State, and as the world struggles with escalating human trafficking, there was disbelief in Australia. It appeared, on the surface at least, that someone in the Pentagon had his or her priorities wrong.
The story was scotched later in the day, when the Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, said there was no plan for B-1 deployments to the country. The Pentagon recanted and said that the senior official who had made the statement to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the Wednesday had “misspoken.”
Though the particular news story proved to be inaccurate, there has been rising angst in the United States and its Asia-Pacific allies, like Australia, about China’s maritime ambitions and its military activities, especially in the South China Sea. However, this anxiety is, as we say in the Queen’s English, “over-egged” (exaggerated) and to some degree self-induced.
The alarmist news Friday followed otherwise fairly balanced testimony in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by the senior official from the Pentagon. But there is one point in his submitted testimony on which the United States needs to be much clearer and could probably exercise some greater restraint. This is the balance between increasing robust in-theater military operations and diplomacy.
Read the full story at The Diplomat