[Jerusalem Post] On Tuesday, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps forcibly commandeered the Maersk Tigris as navigated its way through the Straits of Hormuz. Iran controls the strategic waterway through which 40 percent of seaborne oil and a quarter of seaborne gas transits to global markets.
The Maersk Tigris is flagged to the Marshall Islands. The South Pacific archipelago gained its independence from the US in 1986 after signing a treaty conceding its right to self-defense in exchange for US protection. According to the treaty, the US has "full authority and responsibility for security and defense of the Marshall Islands."
Given the US's formal, binding obligation to the Marshall Islands, the Iranian seizure of the ship was in effect an act of war against America.
If the administration continues to stand by in the face of Iran's aggression, the strategic implications will radiate far beyond the US's bilateral ties with the Marshall Islands. If the US allows Iran to get away with unlawfully seizing a Marshall Islands flagged ship it is treaty bound to protect, it will reinforce the growing assessment of its Middle Eastern allies that its security guarantees are worthless. That's not news. We knew it since 1967.
#4
Similar has been said about the worth of its so-called "ironclad" Obama-led US commitment to its mutual defense treaties wid the Philippines + Japan, i.e. that the US is NOT obligated to respond to China's actions iff the latter occurred in "international/disputed" waters, andor iff the Philippines or Japan proves to be the "aggressor" even iff in preemptive move to protect their interests agz the bigger + more powerful Nuke-armed China.
Again, despite the advent of "Belt-N-Road" strategy ala China, Bejing has thus far shown no inkling that is willing to amend or give up its desire to control east Asia + minima 1/2 of the Pacific asper being a OWG Globalist "US-style" Co-Superpower. CHINA STILL WANTS ITS STRATEGIC ACCESS FOR THE PLA INTO WESTPAC + CENTPAC, ETC.
Cold War or post-Cold War, 9-11 "Sole Superpower or future OWG Co-Superpower, THE USA HAS OVERSEAS MILBASES EVERYWHERE, OR ACCESS TO SAME VEE REGIONAL ALLIES, WHILE CHINA + PLA [+ Putin-led Russia + Iran, ETC.] HAVE VERY FEW OR NONE.
CHINA + PUTINIST RUSIA + IRAN, ETC, WANT TO CHANGE THE ABOVE CALCULUS VEE THE US, WHICH THANKS TO ANTI-US US GLOBALIST OBAMA + ALIGNED IS WHAT WE'RE SEEING NOW IN THE MEDIAS, ALA CHINA = EAST-SOUTH CHINA SEAS, RUSSIA = CRIMEA, + IRAN = MIDDLE EAST. Iff BRAZIL doesn't want or is not ready to lead future OWG South American Union as a "US-style" Co-Superpower, safe to say CHRISTINA + ARGENTINA want the job.
AFAIC, the MAERSK TIGRIS = GUAM + PACIFIC ISLANDS = iff a shooting war ever breaks out in East Asia + a US-China confrontation occurs, the US' primary concern at that time will be to AVOID ANY TYPE OF NUCLEAR WAR AGZ CHINA THAT CAN SERIOUSLY DAMAGE OR DESTROY CONUS-NORAM + KILL MILYUHNS OF MAINLAND AMERICANS - as long as GUAM remains an unincorporated US territory, GUAM IS POLIICALLY + MILITARILY EXPENDABLE NO MATTER ITS MERITS.
Right now, both China + Radical Islam, the PLA + ISIS, Al-Qaeda, is just over the horizon in the Philippines + SE Asia, + GETTING CLOSER.
* WORLD MILTARY FORUM > WARREN BUFFET: CHINA WILL BECOME A SUPERPOWER, ACCOMPLISH IN 40 YEARS WHAT IT TOOK THE UNITED STTAES OVER 200 YEARS TO ACHIEVE.
Can RISING IRAN + PUTINIST RUSSIA = "US-STYLE" OWG CO-SUPERPOWERS IRAN + RUSSIA, OTHER? DO THE SAME???
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
