Let’s play the game of creating a hypothetical situation. Assume that two countries in close proximity to one another are having a strong disagreement. One of these countries is the source for most of your goods and the other is a country that hosts one of your foreign military bases. What would be the best course of action for your country? Would you try to stay out of it and let the two countries duke it out or would you send your warships into the fray? If you answers the latter you may be ready for a career in the United States war department:
China has confirmed that one of its warships — reportedly the newly deployed aircraft carrier Liaoning — had an “encounter” with a U.S. guided missile cruiser in the South China Sea earlier this month.
The incident, in which American officials say the USS Cowpens was forced to take evasive action to avoid a collision, was first revealed by Washington last week. China’s state media has said it was Liaoning involved in the incident, but Beijing’s Defense Ministry on Wednesday would only say that the U.S. vessel had been “tailing and harassing” one of its warships while it was engaged in drills. It did not say which of its warships was involved.
What could possible go wrong with involving ourselves in this dispute between China and Japan? Especially when you consider there is really not reason for the United States to be in that region other than to expand its empire. The thing that worries me is incidents of harassment turning into incidents of combat. Warring with China is a recipe for failure considering the economy power it wields.