Human Wrongs Watch
By Peter Symonds, WSWS*, 24 August 2012 — As part of its build-up in Asia, the US military is planning an extensive ballistic missile defence system that will only exacerbate tensions throughout the region, especially with China.
According to the Wall Street Journal yesterday [23 August]: “The planned build-up is part of a defensive array that could cover large swathes of Asia, with a new radar in southern Japan and possibly another in Southeast Asia tied to missile-defence ships and land-based interceptors.”
North Korea is the purported reason for constructing the anti-missile system, but the real target is China.
Steven Hildreth from the US Congressional Research Service told the Wall Street Journal: “The focus of our rhetoric is North Korea. The reality is that we’re also looking longer term at the elephant in the room, which is China.”