'Carter’s visit suggests US preparing for war with China'

An American political analyst says US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter’s going over to the Southeast Asia region suggests that the United States is gearing up for war with China.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon chief left the US for Singapore where he will attend an Asian security summit amid growing tensions over the South China Sea.

Carter is expected to participate in the talks which will primarily focus on what Washington and some regional countries consider as Beijing's military expansion across the disputed South China Sea.

The so-called Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual meeting in Singapore, will be attended by defense ministers, military chiefs and defense experts from the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

Scott Bennet, a former US army psychological warfare officer, told Press TV on Wednesday that Carter’s visit “is an interesting indication of the US preparation for conflict with China which it maybe coordinating with its conflict with Russia in Ukraine and the Baltics.”

“This is one of the most insane moves of course that the United States could ever make under the Obama administration, because it would be equivalent to a two-front war,” he said. “We saw the result of that in WWII, with Hitler invading Germany and at the same time declaring war against the West and the United states.”

The analyst said “the United States of America and its people do not want war with China in the Southeast Asia area. And it certainly exceeds the boundaries of the Constitution and the use of the United States’ military. The United States’ military is to be used to defend its people and its territory."

China has slammed US military build-up in the South China Sea, saying it is Washington, and not Beijing, which is truly militarizing the disputed waters by conducting patrols and "freedom of navigation" operations there.

On February 19, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said that patrols by US military aircraft and navy vessels as well as its joint military drills with regional partners are behind “escalated tensions” in the South China Sea.

“That’s the real militarization of the South China Sea,” the Chinese official added.

However, a Pentagon report showed last month that China has added more than 3,200 acres (1,300 hectares) of land to the seven features it allegedly occupies in the Spratly Islands archipelago, which is also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.

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