ada gula ada semut
Once again, one reads with increasingly milder disbelief a measured piece of analysis in The Jakarta Post:
News analysis: Wither the Community, arise East Asia rivalry
If Indonesia and ASEAN had any pretensions that its touted East Asia Community could manage a dynamic equilibrium in avoiding a dreaded Cold War-like rivalry of alliances, then such notions were thrown halfway out the window last week.
Sandwiched between two major summits, APEC in Honolulu and the East Asia Summit in Bali, US President Barack Obama’s formal announcement of heightened military presence through a Darwin military base is a marker for what could be a drawn-out era of intra-regional rivalry.
The US, Australia, the Philippines (and more timidly Singapore and India), on the one side, versus a rising China on the other. While most of Southeast Asia caught in the middle being dragged one way or another.
Wither the Community, Arise East Asia Rivalry - The Jakarta Post - Nov 21, 2011.
...
Also relatively lucid:
The Bishop's Gambit - Sydney Morning Herald - Nov 23, 2011.The USA is here to stay
China's extraordinary economic growth in recent decades has led to considerable speculation about whether its rise will continue to be peaceful and the impact it will have on the existing world order.
Its strong performance has been contrasted in more recent times by the economic struggles of the world's super power, the United States.
This has led some pundits to theorise that the US may become a lesser force in the Asia Pacific, particularly as China's military build-up continues and it develops greater naval capability.
[...]
Commentators continue to pose the hypothetical that if there were military conflict between the US and China, Australia would have to choose between its closest military and strategic ally and its biggest economic and trading partner.
The closer integration of the US and Chinese economies makes this an unlikely scenario.
A more reasonable assessment is that Australia will continue to maintain its close historical and strategic relationship with the US and work assiduously to maintain the mutually beneficial economic relationship with China.
Let's face it, in World War 'Nam, the gringos are inevitably going to circle the wagons and send out foragers. One can only pray they know what they're doing.
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