Why is Obama Goading China? — Mike Whitney

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter is willing to risk a war with China in order to defend  “freedom of navigation” in the South China Sea. Speaking in Honolulu, Hawaii on Wednesday, Carter issued his “most forceful” warning yet, demanding “an immediate and lasting halt to land reclamation” by China in the disputed Spratly Islands.
Carter said: “There should be no mistake: The United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, as we do all around the world.” He also added that the United States intended to remain “the principal security power in the Asia-Pacific for decades to come.”
In order to show Chinese leaders “who’s the boss”, Carter has threatened to deploy U.S. warships and surveillance aircraft to within twelve miles of the islands that China claims are within their territorial waters. Not surprisingly, the U.S. is challenging China under the provisions of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea,  a document the US has stubbornly refused to ratify.  But that’s neither here nor there for the bellicose Carter whose insatiable appetite for confrontation makes him the most reckless Secretary of Defense since Donald Rumsfeld.
So what’s this really all about?  Why does Washington care so much about a couple hundred yards of sand piled up on reefs in the South China Sea? What danger does that pose to U.S. national security? And, haven’t Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines all engaged in similar “land reclamation” activities without raising hackles in D.C.?

This post was published at Counterpunch