US antagonizing Russia, China to keep up its war machine: Analyst

The United States is pursuing a strategy to antagonize Russia and China because it needs enemy to “keep up its war machine,” says an author and attorney in Washington.

The US plan to continue naval operations in the South China Sea is “a remarkably provocative action,” J Michael Springmann said in an interview on Sunday.

Washington says Beijing is running a massive “land reclamation” program through building artificial islands in the South China Sea, and that the projects could further militarize the region.

US Defense Secretary Ash Carter accused China Sunday of conducting military activities at “an unprecedented rate” in the disputed waters.

The Pentagon chief said that disputes over territory in the South China Sea have caused many countries to increase their “security cooperation” with the United States.

The US Navy sent a guided-missile destroyer within 12 nautical miles of one of China’s artificial islands in the South China Sea late on Monday.

The move, which was meant to reassure allies in Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines in the face of China’s actions in the Spratly Islands chain, was quickly condemned by Beijing as a “deliberate provocation.”

“The United States really does not need to offend China—the most populous country on earth with a very large and fairly modern war machine,” Springmann said.

“At the same time, the United States, at the other end of the world, is doing its best to antagonize the Russians over the Ukraine and the Middle East, where the Russians are bombing American terrorist positions in Syria,” he noted.

The US has criticized Russia's air campaign in Syria as a strategic blunder. President Barack Obama said earlier this month that the bombings would suck Russia into a "quagmire."

American officials say Moscow has concentrated a large portion of the airstrikes on US-backed militants fighting the Syrian government. 

The Obama administration escalated its military campaign in Syria on Friday by authorizing the first open deployment of boots on the ground. Up to 50 special operations troops will be sent to assist Kurdish and Arab forces in northern Syria, American officials said Friday.

“What the Americans are looking to do is to keep the fear alive; they are sort of running out of ‘terrorists’ to fight because the Russians seem to be taking care of them in Syria,” Springmann argued.

“This terrorism thing is getting old and [Americans] need a new enemy to fight. They need to keep up their war machine and they need to keep up the vast spending that goes into it,” the author concluded.

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