VIRTUAL REALITY: The Carl Vinson visit: America’s message to Asia

By Tony Lopez

ON May 18, I was privileged to visit the USS Carl Vinson, the nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carrier of the United States government. I spent more than six hours on the boat, visiting its nooks and crannies, including its so-called combat room. The Vinson is one of about ten aircraft carriers which are the prime symbols of America’s military might and lone superpower status.

Built at a cost of more than $4.5 billion, the Carl Vinson since late 2009 has been the flagship of the relatively new Carrier Strike Group I, based in San Diego. When it departed Norfolk for San Diego in January 12, 2010, the carrier was accompanied by Carrier Air Wing 17, Destroyer Squadron I, and the guided missile cruiser Bunker Hill, according to Wikipedia.
Early morning of May 2, the USS Carl Vinson acquired additional bragging rights—or notoriety, if you will—for burying the world’s No. 1 terrorist and wanted man, al-Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden, into the North Arabian Sea, with proper burial honors, of course. Thus ended the career of OBL, who The Economist said “swept up a ragbag of local grievances into a brand of intoxicating and violent jihad with worldwide pretensions.” The respected magazine estimated the cost of pursuing OBL at over $1 trillion, 150,000 deaths, two long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 15 years.
So who’s the next enemy? My guess is countries, like Libya under Qadaffi, and China, the next solo superpower, in 20 to 30 years. If America could spend $1 trillion to destroy one man, how much is it willing to spend to put so-called “enemy” countries in their proper places?
When USS Carl Vinson sailed into Manila Bay May 14-19 for an R and R for its more than 5,000 crew and airmen, it not making an ordinary or routine port call.
America was sending a message. It could be any or all of the following:
One, the United States is a Pacific power. One side of the American mainland faces the Pacific Ocean. America has the fund, the force and the fleet to project such power into the world’s most dynamic region.
Two, now that the world’s No. 1 terrorist is dead, tension, especially in the Middle East, may subside.
So the next battleground, if any, is the South China Sea where China has been flexing its muscles, building garrisons, and claiming territories. At least six countries, (the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, Brunei and China), claim islands in or the entire Spratly island archipelago. So the message to America’s Asian enemy, whoever, he is: “We’ll bury you next.”
Three, the Philippines is a strategic place for power projection by any superpower.
Four, the Obama administration supports the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III although the latter has suffered steep drops in his job approval ratings in recent months for lack of any substantial initiatives or achievements after a year in office. This may explain why the Carl Vinson docked off Henry Sy’s Mall of Asia, not at the blue waters of Subic Bay, the former home of the US Seventh Fleet to which the Carl Vinson is sometimes assigned. Manila, not Subic, is the seat of political and economic power.
Five, the Americans are in the Philippines to stay—for good. Its so-called visiting forces are not visitors nor guests. They are permanent residents.
Three days before the Carl Vinson docked off Mall of Asia, Chinese MIG-29 Fulcurm jet fighters reportedly buzzed two Philippine Air Force OV-10 Bronco planes on routine reconnaissance patrol over the Reed Bank Basin of the Kalayaan Island Group, which is part of the Spratly archipelago being claimed by Beijing.
In March, two Chinese gunboats harassed a Philippine research vessel of the Department of Energy at the Reed Bank. The Philippines has oil and gas deposits at the Reed Bank and the commercial scale Malampaya gas find. Manila protested China’s brand of gunboat diplomacy, but feebly.
At the dinner at the Carl Vinson, US Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr. said: “I agree with the reporter who recently wrote that ‘the honor accorded to President Aquino shows (that) the closeness of the United States and the Philippines does not only extend to treaty ties; it is built on blood and shared relationships!’
Four days after the Vinson left Manila, the Chinese defense secretary came. Gen. Liang Guanglie met with President Aquino. Invariably, they discussed the Spratlys, “Nansha” to the Chinese. They agreed not to resort to violence in pursuing their conflicting claims.
By tradition and history, however, when it comes to territories, might is right. Why do nations go to war? To claim territories.