Jump to content
Please support this forum by joining the SH Patreon ×
Sturgeon's House

The BRP Sierra Madre


Sturgeon

Recommended Posts

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...