Wall Street Journal (April 23)
“As U.S.-China tensions increase, the chance of a miscalculation grows,” especially in the South China Sea. “China’s recent behavior has badly damaged its claims to be a global stakeholder that plays by the rules. The U.S. is right to make clear that it remains a Pacific power and that the coronavirus hasn’t lessened its resolve.”
Tags: Behavior, China, Claims, Coronavirus, Miscalculation, Pacific, Resolve, Rules, South China Sea, Tensions, U.S.
Washington Post (September 27)
Tensions between the U.S. and North Korea have “escalated from a game of blind man’s bluff to a drag race of nuclear chicken,” with the fate of the Pacific resting on the whims of “Rocket Man” and President “Dotard.” This is how things go “in Toontown, where two of the planet’s most unstable state actors call each other names and spin the roulette wheel toward nukes and annihilation.” What else is there to do, but “pray that we and the planet survive the Dotard and the Rocket Man?”
Tags: Annihilation, Fate, North Korea, Nuclear chicken, Pacific, Pray, President Dotard, Rocket Man, Roulette, Survive, Tensions, U.S., Unstable, Whims
Wall Street Journal (February 19)
An Atlantic free trade pact presents tremendous opportunity. “A good pact could raise GDP on both sides of the Atlantic by as much as 1% a year. The European Union and U.S. traded some $646 billion in goods last year—only Canada comes close as a U.S. trade partner…. Merely starting the talks will also motivate the current trans-Pacific trade talks to get moving and perhaps even draw Japan lest it be left behind.”
Wall Street Journal (September 16)
“The U.S. is increasingly worried that territorial disputes in the Pacific could inadvertently erupt into a conflict.” En route to Japan, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said, “What we don’t want is any kind of provocative behavior on the part of China or anybody else, resulting in conflict….That conflict would have the potential of expanding.”
New York Times (November 1)
Scientists believe much of the debris carried to sea by Japan’s March 11 tsunami will eventually end up in place known as “the Pacific Garbage Patch.” About 5-10% of the items, however, will wash ashore, some of it in Hawaii. Though transformed by years in the ocean, these items “will be an echo of a tragedy, for many years to come. “
