Has the ‘war on terror’ micro-managed our military away from fighting wars?  Some thing that appeared on my radar around 2004 was the ‘Spec-Ops’ bandwagon.  Everyone wanted to be Spec Ops, designated Spec Ops, or call themselves ‘Spec Ops’ all because in fighting the war with terrorist, the lion’s share of money and attention was being diverted to Special Operations in order to fight the terrorist. 

   I have a feeling at the same time during a meeting of the PLA ‘Joints Chiefs’ that they recognized that fact as well so they adjusted their time table and plans accordingly.  While they the PRC/PLA had embarked on a massive reorganization and modernization of their forces in the 1980’s, current events have justified and accelerated their plans on becoming the prominent Super Power of the East and possibly the World.

   Having the U.S. bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, this has played very well into the PRC plans.  U.S. political and military attention has been shifted towards the one goal of fighting terrorism and while this has brought small gains in urban and insurgent warfare, the following story is showing how the U.S. has neglected preparing for the next big war.

uninvited guest: Chinese sub pops up in middle of U.S. Navy exercise, leaving military chiefs red-faced

By MATTHEW HICKLEY - 10th November 2007

When the U.S. Navy deploys a battle fleet on exercises, it takes the security of its aircraft carriers very seriously indeed.

At least a dozen warships provide a physical guard while the technical wizardry of the world's only military superpower offers an invisible shield to detect and deter any intruders.

That is the theory. Or, rather, was the theory.

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Uninvited guest: A Chinese Song Class submarine, like the one that sufaced by the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk

American military chiefs have been left dumbstruck by an undetected Chinese submarine popping up at the heart of a recent Pacific exercise and close to the vast U.S.S. Kitty Hawk - a 1,000ft supercarrier with 4,500 personnel on board.

By the time it surfaced the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine is understood to have sailed within viable range for launching torpedoes or missiles at the carrier.

According to senior Nato officials the incident caused consternation in the U.S. Navy.

The Americans had no idea China's fast-growing submarine fleet had reached such a level of sophistication, or that it posed such a threat.

One Nato figure said the effect was "as big a shock as the Russians launching Sputnik" - a reference to the Soviet Union's first orbiting satellite in 1957 which marked the start of the space age.

The incident, which took place in the ocean between southern Japan and Taiwan, is a major embarrassment for the Pentagon.

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Battle stations: The Kitty Hawk carries 4,500 personnel

The lone Chinese vessel slipped past at least a dozen other American warships which were supposed to protect the carrier from hostile aircraft or submarines.

And the rest of the costly defensive screen, which usually includes at least two U.S. submarines, was also apparently unable to detect it.

According to the Nato source, the encounter has forced a serious re-think of American and Nato naval strategy as commanders reconsider the level of threat from potentially hostile Chinese submarines.

It also led to tense diplomatic exchanges, with shaken American diplomats demanding to know why the submarine was "shadowing" the U.S. fleet while Beijing pleaded ignorance and dismissed the affair as coincidence.

Analysts believe Beijing was sending a message to America and the West demonstrating its rapidly-growing military capability to threaten foreign powers which try to interfere in its "backyard".

The People's Liberation Army Navy's submarine fleet includes at least two nuclear-missile launching vessels.

Its 13 Song Class submarines are extremely quiet and difficult to detect when running on electric motors.

Commodore Stephen Saunders, editor of Jane's Fighting Ships, and a former Royal Navy anti-submarine specialist, said the U.S. had paid relatively little attention to this form of warfare since the end of the Cold War.

He said: "It was certainly a wake-up call for the Americans.

"It would tie in with what we see the Chinese trying to do, which appears to be to deter the Americans from interfering or operating in their backyard, particularly in relation to Taiwan."

In January China carried a successful missile test, shooting down a satellite in orbit for the first time.

   While the U.S. desperately needs to maintain it’s vast Special Operations communities, conventional forces and well as nuclear forces need to be vastly upgraded and re-emphasized.  At home, less money and manpower needs to be placed upon the bureaucracies of  “Homeland Security Department”, and placed instead into every city and town in form of uniformed police.  If any politician is serious about being President, Senator, or Congressman, he/she will make sure this happens. 

    So in short:  let Spec Ops fight the war on terror, prepare our conventional forces to fight a near future conventional war, prepare our nuclear forces to defend our Homeland and respond aggressively to any like attack, cut back the useless admin pukes in D.C. and put uniform police officers on the streets of this Nation. 

    This all because a pebble was thrown into our pond.  A pebble in the form of a Chinese submarine.