A New US ‘Enduring War’ This Time On Asia?

Human Wrongs Watch

By Peter Symonds, WSWS*, 24 August 2012 — As part of its build-up in Asia, the US military is planning an extensive ballistic missile defence system that will only exacerbate tensions throughout the region, especially with China.

According to the Wall Street Journal yesterday [23 August]: “The planned build-up is part of a defensive array that could cover large swathes of Asia, with a new radar in southern Japan and possibly another in Southeast Asia tied to missile-defence ships and land-based interceptors.”

North Korea is the purported reason for constructing the anti-missile system, but the real target is China.

Steven Hildreth from the US Congressional Research Service told the Wall Street Journal: “The focus of our rhetoric is North Korea. The reality is that we’re also looking longer term at the elephant in the room, which is China.”

New Radar Installation on Japanese Island

Two US officials confirmed to BusinessWeek that the Pentagon had held discussions with Japan over a new radar installation on a southern Japanese island and that a similar installation in Southeast Asia was being considered. But they said that no decisions were imminent and described the system as “a possibility in view of the North Korean threat.”

The lengthy Wall Street Journal article, however, points to the internal discussions within the Pentagon and the White House, as well as the talks that are taking place with key allies—South Korea and Australia, as well as Japan.

The immediate focus is the establishment of an early-warning X-band radar in southern Japan, to supplement an X-band installation established in the north of Japan in 2006. US defence officials told the Journal that the radar could be installed within months of Japan’s agreement.

A Third X-Band Radar in Southeast Asia

Officials from the Pentagon’s Pacific Command and Missile Defense Agency have also been evaluating sites in Southeast Asia for a third X-Band radar that would allow greater precision in tracking ballistic missiles launched from China as well as North Korea.

A senior American official confirmed that any system aimed at North Korea would also cover China. “Physics is physics,” he said. “You’re either blocking North Korea and China or you’re not blocking either of them.”

Also the Philippines

The Journal’s sources named the Philippines, a formal US ally, as a potential location. Encouraged by the Obama administration, the Philippine government has been ratcheting up tensions with Beijing over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

The US is already engaged in discussions with the Philippines over basing arrangements similar to that reached with Australia last November. The US military has begun stationing Marines in Darwin, and American warships and warplanes will have greater access to bases in northern and western Australia.

And South Korea

US Assistance Defence Secretary for Global Strategic Affairs Madelyn Creedon told the media in March that the Pentagon’s push for anti-missile systems in Asia involved two sets of trilateral dialogues—one with Japan and Australia and another with Japan and South Korea. Recent tensions between Tokyo and Seoul have cut across US plans.

The South Korean government has delayed signing an intelligence sharing agreement with Japan that is considered essential to a regional missile defence system.

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