The BRP Sierra Madre

[Sturgeon]

Oh, the Philippines, you so crazy.

 

Could someone please explain to me how deliberately running a ship aground and then filling it with personnel on five-month isolated shifts like some sort of bizarre post-apocalyptic carnival is "asserting your authority" over an area?

[Khand-e]

Well you see, China is the "villain" in this story so doing something completely insane is not only perfectly acceptable, but just shows how brave they are are for.... being stationed on a moored ship against said country.

[Xlucine]

Evidence of habitation is useful for territorial claims. Same reason china is making islands

[Sturgeon]

Evidence of habitation is useful for territorial claims. Same reason china is making islands

 

Oh sure. That's less like "asserting your authority" than it is throwing a bunch of used condoms all over the place and saying "see, this is my bedroom!", though.

[Donward]

That's basically what the Chinese were doing on the border with India earlier this year.

[Collimatrix]

I had read an analysis claiming that China doesn't really give a fuck about the islands, but they like stirring up trouble regarding the little rocks that are three-way-claimed by Japan, Taiwan and themselves because it could possibly strain US/Japanese relations.

 

This might be similar.

[Donward]

So China; trolling the world just for the LOLs.

[xthetenth]

No, damaging the unity of opposed coalitions is pretty useful in coalition politics. However, reinforcing their dislike of you is probably a mistake.

[Collimatrix]

Yep; it's Machiavellian maneuvering, although the PRC has a tendency to appear somewhat autistic and brutish in such matters.

 

It's dickish, but it's harder for them to be dispassionate about such things.  They have US proxies/allies right on their borders, and an uncertain future with India and North Korea.  The US doesn't have to worry about that sort of crap; thank you Monroe Doctrine.  

 

If doing some stupid games on some sea rocks is what it costs to weaken US collusion with Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines or Taiwan, that's a very good trade-off for them.  They're not stupid; they know that The Pivot essentially amounts to containment.  They're not going to just let that happen without some sort of counter-play.  Every time the US has to step in and play territorial negotiator, they run the risk of appearing too partial to their allies to be taken as a credible honest broker, or too conciliatory to China to be relied upon by their allies.  Do enough of these stupid games and it might meaningfully erode US credibility.

 

That's my take anyway; I probably shouldn't underestimate the nationalistic passion fertilized by owning a few stupid rocks in the middle of the stupid ocean.

[Khand-e]

To be fair, it's not like China hasn't been screwed over on Oceanic territory before in the past. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/24/obama-in-japan-backs-status-quo-in-island-dispute-with-china, plus, as mentioned before, they pretty much always get painted as the villain or aggressor in any situation regardless of what actually happens.

 

But hey, at least the Philippines have a much better track record on not being agressive at all in oceanic territory disputes and they themselves wouldn't manage to hurt relations between then and their allies! (Not that it matters.)

 

http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20130511000117&cid=1101

 

....wait, what was I saying?

[Zinegata]

First of all, if the intent was to troll me to participate here, it worked.

 

Second, why are people presuming that the Philippine government is sane or sensible to begin with? Sure, we're not a complete basketcase anymore with P-noy but that doesn't stop the rest of the institution, most especially the military, being completely and utterly incompetent.

 

That the main Filipino pro-military website (timawa.net) is a circle-jerk of gun nuts with no rational concept of what a credible defense looks like and who just wants to spend billions on shiny new jet planes (whose main duty will be to die gloriously sixteen minutes into any serious conflict with China) that could held rebuild Tacloban instead just goes to show how the country's military strategy is nothing but complete fail.

[Sturgeon]

First of all, if the intent was to troll me to participate here, it worked.

 

Huzzah for happy accidents!

[Khand-e]

Huzzah for happy accidents!

 

We need to fish for certain others now, like Meplat.

 

also, after checking the one comment, I noticed this gem.

 

"Lets give the Philippine navy a nice used Destroyer or Aircraft Carrier and make it LOOK like it too was run aground. Surprise!!!!"

 

.....In what possible universe would this ever work in the Philippines' favor?

[xthetenth]

In case you wanted to start a shooting war with a combatant stranded in an exposed location, duh!