The long delayed joint U.S.-South Korean naval exercise (code-named "Invincible Spirit") finally started July 25 and will run until July 28. The size of the allied force involved is impressive. Some 20 warships led by the nuclear aircraft carrier George Washington are taking part, supported by Air Force units including F-22 Raptor fighters.
Lockheed Martin claims that its "fifth generation" F-22 assures American air dominance for the next 40 years. But this is only true if the fleet is not overwhelmed by massive numbers of enemy aircraft, which it will be if only 187 are built. Both China and Russia are moving ahead with their advanced fighter programs, without any signs they will cap their production at a low level. Yet, whenever there is a need to show American power, it is the Raptors which are sent. But, this irony seems lost on the media.
The media has, however, noted how the current naval "show of force" has been weakened by the decision to hold the exercise in the Sea of Japan rather than in the Yellow Sea. The South Korea warship Cheonan was sunk by a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine in March. Forty-six crewmen were killed. The South Korea ship went down in the Yellow Sea on the other side of the Korean peninsula from where the maneuvers are taking place. Why not hold the drills where the North Koreans attacked?
The Washington Post gave the correct answer, "Facing vehement opposition from China, U.S. and South Korean officials decided to relocate the drills from the Yellow Sea, west of South Korea, to the Sea of Japan to the east.
Aoording to Singapore Straits Times, a senior U.S. defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, went as far as to say that while the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington would join the exercise, there are no plans for it to enter the Yellow Sea for subsequent exercises this summer. Such an assurance is a tacit recognition by the US that the Yellow Sea lays within China's sphere of influence.
The current crisis is about more than Korea or the Yellow Sea. A July 26 editorial in the Chinese Communist Party publication Global Times attacked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent plea that disputes in the South China Sea be settled peacefully while keeping maritime navigation open. The editorial claimed this was just an example of "typical American ways of keeping a presence and causing interference in disputed areas." (Source: William R. Hawkin, familysecuritymatters.org, Jul 27, 2010).