So, in the midst of hard hitting questions to the candidates, we have a little news item here I would like to hear them address (hat tip Hot Air)
American military chiefs have been left dumbstruck by an undetected Chinese submarine popping up at the heart of a recent Pacific exercise and close to the vast U.S.S. Kitty Hawk - a 1,000ft supercarrier with 4,500 personnel on board.
By the time it surfaced the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine is understood to have sailed within viable range for launching torpedoes or missiles at the carrier.
According to senior Nato officials the incident caused consternation in the U.S. Navy.
Consternation, eh? Kinda like leaning your rifle up against the latrine, going in, sitting down with a copy of Newsweek, and having the “enemy combatant” sneak up on you and steal it. And all you can say is “well, at least he didn’t tip me over”.
Senator Obama, as President, how do you propose to deal with the growing number of instances of other countries spitting in our eye? Soviet bombers overflying our airspace, Chinese submarines popping up in the middle of battle fleets, North Korean missle launches and nuclear arms sales… what do you say sir?
Mr Mayor, you’re running on a perception of having cleaned up a major U.S. city. How do you propose to bring those skills to bear on difficult foreign policy issues? What’s that sir? Oh, you plan to appoint quality people to all of those important positions… excellent.
Mr Thompson, can you tell us what you think Mr Reagan would do? Well sir, just what CAN you tell us?
Dr Paul, if we bring all of our military, naval, and air assets home, do you think they will quit picking on us, and everything will be just fine? Real world here now Dr Paul…
Mrs Clinton, when you were co-president before, what did you do in similar situations? Would you like to take a position here, or should we get back to you after you get all those campaign donations sorted out?
Huckabee? Hunter? Anyone…?
According to the Nato source, the encounter has forced a serious re-think of American and Nato naval strategy as commanders reconsider the level of threat from potentially hostile Chinese submarines.
It also led to tense diplomatic exchanges, with shaken American diplomats demanding to know why the submarine was “shadowing” the U.S. fleet while Beijing pleaded ignorance and dismissed the affair as coincidence.
Analysts believe Beijing was sending a message to America and the West demonstrating its rapidly-growing military capability to threaten foreign powers which try to interfere in its “backyard”.
Don’t want to ruin anyone’s day, but President of the United States is kind of an important job, and it isn’t as narrowly focused as the campaigns have made it so far. I’m not encouraged by the current crop of lightweights running for President, on either side, right now. Are you serious when you think Ron Paul is up to the job? John Edwards? And how well do you know McCain, to be able to guess where he is on something like this. I’ll be interested to watch what they all say this next week, and how the Old Media spins it. This goes way beyond what Church they go to, drivers licenses for illegals, and tax increases for the rich… and the first one who says it is America’s fault, we’re just not nice, gets the Laughingstock of the Decade Award.
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November 18th, 2007 at 1:34 am
This happened last year, and it’s not a big deal… unless it’ll get more funding for U.S. subs, in which case we should all be very scared of the Chinese submarine threat. ( http://bubbleheads.blogspot.com/2007/11/groundhog-day-for-submarine-breaking.html )
November 18th, 2007 at 6:29 am
thanks for coming by, Joel. I didn’t realize this was “old” “recent” news… missed it when it came out the first time. The point I was making about the current crop of candidates on both sides still stands though. Somewhere between the John Wayne wannabes and the neo-isolationists lies America’s real course, and I’m not convinced any of these guys has found it yet.