F-22s; Olympics and Presidential Politics

It’s all about brinkmanship. The U. S. holds few trumps. China is leaning way forward - it even proposed a U. S.-China Pacific partitioning, and Taiwan is watching it arm to the teeth. The communist state Is be set on tripling its ground based nuclear weapons force by 2009. The US Navy does not yet have a full answer to the latest Chinese missiles that could be used against its most powerful Pacific weapon the carrier task force. China is aggressively at work in cyberspace to the tune that’s prompted the U. S. Air Force to add cyberspace to its triad.

One U. S. trump is its F-22 fighter-bomber. The F-22 is considered the most advanced aircraft in the American arsenal and is a key element of the Pentagon’s “hedge” strategy against China. The stealth fighter bomber is believed to have unmatched capabilities to penetrate Chinese air defenses and thus is viewed by Beijing as a major threat. The U. S. has not yet sold the F-22 to Australia or Japan (both of whom wants it) because that would inflame China.

So, the F-22 and even a Presidential appearance at the Beijing Olympics this summer are entwined in a complex, strategic showdown as well as a much more pedestrian place in U. S. Presidential politics.