While much of America and the West seem to be focused and pre-occupied with the ongoing war in Afghanistan and Iraq they tend to overlook the fact that the overall war is ongoing on numerous other fronts. A neverending war of ideologies that has no fanfare and no exit strategies.
This is the clandestine war, a war cloaked in secrecy that America for the most part has no stomach to partake in. There are no rules of warfare here and neither are there any shortcuts. It is a situation where either you win or you lose and to win requires not only a willingness to get your own hands dirty, but a lifetime commitment on the part of the combatants.
Whatever one may think, we will never win this war by proxy. No one and surely not the nationals of another sovereign nation are willing to fight your battles for you. Everyone in this game has their own agenda and their own objectives. Evaluate what you have, always develop your own assets and never ever allow yourself to be in a position where you are forced to rely on the assets and the intelligence of others. These are important lessons that China has held dear and lessons that America has yet to see the importance nor the value of.
America has paid little attention to Southeast Asia in recent years. Finding themselves having to play catch-up, the strategy has been to recruit assets rather than develop our own. The results have been disastrous. "Our friends" in the region whom we naively thought shared our mutual interests, don't. Reports alleged to be classified from both the CFR and the RAND Corporation concerning potential terrorist activities and interests concerning America and China have found themselves into the hands of JI and Chinese intelligence operating withing the region sometimes only hours after they are officially released. A few of the reports have been then photocopied and then distributed to other members in Indonesia and the region. It is not just our intelligence on China's military buildup that we have missed, but China's intelligence activities as well. The harsh reality that America needs to face up to is that it is not just "our friends" who have betrayed us, but our own family members as well.
In Summer of 1994 was when the first plans were drawn up for a major terrorist attack against Western interests in the Straits of Malacca. The plan was to highjack an oil tanker in the Straits of Malacca and ground it in Phillips Channel to be followed by a collision with another hijacked vessel. The planned attack was meant to be in response to the jailing of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. The planned attack never took place.
If such an attack ever took place, it would be a failure of China's intelligence agency and as such, China has taken steps in an attempt to ensure that it never does happen.
If it is still too difficult to see, then simply ask yourself one question. Would America trust China to protect the sea lanes through which fifty percent of our nation's oil supply flowed?
This is the clandestine war, a war cloaked in secrecy that America for the most part has no stomach to partake in. There are no rules of warfare here and neither are there any shortcuts. It is a situation where either you win or you lose and to win requires not only a willingness to get your own hands dirty, but a lifetime commitment on the part of the combatants.
Whatever one may think, we will never win this war by proxy. No one and surely not the nationals of another sovereign nation are willing to fight your battles for you. Everyone in this game has their own agenda and their own objectives. Evaluate what you have, always develop your own assets and never ever allow yourself to be in a position where you are forced to rely on the assets and the intelligence of others. These are important lessons that China has held dear and lessons that America has yet to see the importance nor the value of.
America has paid little attention to Southeast Asia in recent years. Finding themselves having to play catch-up, the strategy has been to recruit assets rather than develop our own. The results have been disastrous. "Our friends" in the region whom we naively thought shared our mutual interests, don't. Reports alleged to be classified from both the CFR and the RAND Corporation concerning potential terrorist activities and interests concerning America and China have found themselves into the hands of JI and Chinese intelligence operating withing the region sometimes only hours after they are officially released. A few of the reports have been then photocopied and then distributed to other members in Indonesia and the region. It is not just our intelligence on China's military buildup that we have missed, but China's intelligence activities as well. The harsh reality that America needs to face up to is that it is not just "our friends" who have betrayed us, but our own family members as well.
Southeast Asia is of vital strategic interest to China and considered to be an issue of Chinese national security. Not only does fifty percent of the world's piracy occur in the Straits of Malacca, but over fifty percent of China's oil now moves through the Straits of Malacca as well. Phillips Channel is the narrowest point in the Straits of Malacca, at only one and a half miles wide, this represents not only a "strategic chokepoint" but China's Achilles heel. A hijacked vessel being highjacked and either grounded, sunk or detonated here would be catastrophic.
In Summer of 1994 was when the first plans were drawn up for a major terrorist attack against Western interests in the Straits of Malacca. The plan was to highjack an oil tanker in the Straits of Malacca and ground it in Phillips Channel to be followed by a collision with another hijacked vessel. The planned attack was meant to be in response to the jailing of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. The planned attack never took place.
If such an attack ever took place, it would be a failure of China's intelligence agency and as such, China has taken steps in an attempt to ensure that it never does happen.
If it is still too difficult to see, then simply ask yourself one question. Would America trust China to protect the sea lanes through which fifty percent of our nation's oil supply flowed?
No comments:
Post a Comment