This is our Navy on drugs. We challenge China and run from Iran...

via Aeseanmildef.

A US Navy destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles or within the territorial waters of an island claimed by China in the South China Sea, in a sign of increasing tension in the region days after Secretary of State John Kerry visited Beijing attempting to settle long standing territorial disputes. Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims to the island as well.

The guided missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG-54) conducted a freedom of navigation operation Saturday near Triton Island, part of the Paracel Island chain in the South China Sea, a Pentagon spokesman confirmed to Fox News. There were no Chinese warships in the area at the time and the transit was characterized as "innocent."

"This operation was about challenging excessive maritime claims that restrict the rights and freedoms of the United States and others, not about territorial claims to land features," said Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.


Davis said none of the three claimants to the island were notified before the US Navy warship transited the area as part of a "normal process" supported by international law. Davis refused to single out China specifically.


Tension in the region has been building for months.

In October, another US Navy destroyer, USS Lassen, conducted a patrol within 12 nautical miles of another Chinese island, a disputed man-made island in the South China Sea part of the Spratly chain of islands, drawing a strong rebuke from China.

I say that its the Navy, but maybe my fire needs to be aimed at the Pentagon, State Dept and White House.

How do you justify, explain or even reason the idea that China's territorial claims are to be challenged militarily and yet Iranian provocation is to be allowed and responded to by turning tail and running?

This is how tragedies happen...and not for the enemy but for our servicemen. If you're a Chinese Admiral and you're hardcore, see a US destroyer crossing into your territory would you be wrong in thinking that you could simply fire shots, stop the ship, board it, imprison the crew and strip the ship?  Nothing happened to Iran so why can't they?

Someone needs to get their shit together.  This is beyond curious and is heading toward the stupid.