Wondering About Senkau Diaoyou

By Bill Cisowski

Is Washington opening up another front in the Far East?  With Syria now on the back burner and the Iran nuclear enrichment talks stalled, Washington, in its ever diligent resolve to keep its war industry humming might now join Japan’s dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea.

When Beijing announced it was setting up an "air defense identification zone" over space that included islands controlled by Japan but claimed by China, it was making a move that could inflame a bitter territorial dispute.  The claim in the East China Sea covers a wide area between South Korea and Taiwan and includes the Tokyo-controlled islands known as the Senkaku to Japan and the Diaoyou to China.

Japanese defense minister Itsunori  Onodera said in late October that the repeated drone incursions were a threat to peace and fell in a "grey zone' (between) peacetime and an emergency situation".  Japan had drafted plans to shoot down foreign drones that encroached its airspace if radio warnings were ignored.

As a response to China's establishment of a new air defense zone, which reaches far into East Asia's international skies, a joint U.S. and Japanese fly-over exercise seemed a distinct warning to China.  We wonder now if the U.S. is preparing once again to involve itself in another conflict.

We wonder also if China, who for years  was called “the sleeping giant”, has finally flexed her muscle.  Is she preparing  to declare her hour of hegemony in the region, that place dominated by the West since the end of World War 2.

It may now seem that the United States, with its increasing debt and an unpopular presidency, is still willing to play the part of the global bully.  This together with Kerry’s blunders in Syria and the stalled Iranian nuclear talks present a picture of a world moving away from peace.  

A war-weary public to ask why the West is opening up yet another front—this time in the Far East?  Might The U.S. Financial Oligarchy who for years has wielded influence over American foreign policy be ready to make yet another move to keep its war-dependent economy sustained?