Scarborough: Politics Should End At The Water"s Edge In Time Of Crisis

JOE SCARBOROUGH: The president’s snippy retort about the ’80s wanting their foreign policy back now makes him look small and ill-prepared for the crisis that’s on him. And the consensus among foreign policy analysts, it just is, is that the diplomatic corps believe that neither Vladimir Putin nor any other world leaders on the stage fear Barack Obama enough to alter bad behavior.

But it bears noting that the Republicans crowing about the Democrats’ failed policy in Russia need to remember three things. First, it was George W. Bush who claimed to look into Putin’s eyes and see the goodness of his soul. Right, remember that?

Second, it was the Bush administration in charge that did very little to stop Putin from invading Georgia in 2008, to support breakaway factions to aligned with Russia then. And third, there remains a quaint notion that some of us still hold closely in our hearts despite all the shabby behavior over the past quarter century, politics should still end at the water’s edge in time of crises.

This is a time of crisis. A great crisis, Steve. And what can we do, other than calling the president feckless and attacking the president? Obviously, I’ve got — I share a lot of the same concerns that John McCain shares with Barack Obama’s foreign policy. But I don’t think that gets us anywhere right now when Vladimir Putin already believes Barack Obama’s weak, to undercut him in the middle of this crisis. So what can we do to make it hurt for Vladimir Putin?

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Scarborough: Politics Should End At The Water"s Edge In Time Of Crisis

Japan Protests After Chinese Ships Linger in Disputed Waters

TOKYO — The Japanese Foreign Ministry lodged a protest with China’s ambassador on Thursday after three Chinese paramilitary ships stayed in waters around disputed islands for the longest period of time since a row over the area heated up last year, the ministry said.

The three vessels, identified as belonging to China’s newly created Coast Guard, entered the waters off the islands in the East China Sea on Wednesday and remained for more than 28 hours, Japan’s Coast Guard said. They were later joined by a fourth Chinese ship before all of the vessels left around noon on Thursday.

While such incursions into Japanese-administered waters have recently been taking place on almost a daily basis, Chinese ships usually stay only a few hours before leaving. During that time, they are tailed by Japanese Coast Guard ships in a high-seas game of cat and mouse.

The length of the most recent incursion brought expressions of concern in Tokyo, where the Foreign Ministry said Junichi Ihara, head of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, summoned the Chinese ambassador to Japan, Han Zhiqiang, to lodge a formal protest.

“We have expressed our anger to the Chinese side,” Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said. “Attempts to change the status quo with veiled threats of force are not permitted by the international community.”

The group of uninhabited islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in Chinese, are administered by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan. Since September, Chinese ships have made regular visits into the waters as part of what analysts call a long-term strategy of wearing down Japan’s will to keep enforcing its claims.

The decades-old dispute flared up last year after the Japanese government bought three of the five islands from their private owner. The move prompted outrage from Beijing, which saw it as an attempt by Japan to solidify control over the islands. The Japanese government said it was acting to pre-empt the purchase of the islands by the nationalist former mayor of Tokyo, who wanted to build a lighthouse and take other more provocative steps to assert Japanese control.

Makiko Inoue contributed reporting.

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Japan Protests After Chinese Ships Linger in Disputed Waters

"N Korea fired into eastern waters"

Iran Press TV

Sat May 18, 2013 10:19AM GMT

South Korea says North Korea has fired three short-range missiles into its eastern waters amid tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said the North launched two guided missiles Saturday morning and another one in the afternoon, adding the North’s intent was unclear.

‘The missiles landed in the East Sea (Sea of Japan),’ he said.

The launches followed a joint South Korea-US naval exercise this week.

A US strike force led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz participated in the drill that ended on Tuesday.

Pyongyang slammed the arrival of the US aircraft carrier in South Korea for the joint military exercise, calling the move a ‘grave military provocation.’

Last week, North Korea warned against any provocation during the upcoming South Korea-US military drills, saying it is ready to counterstrike if a ‘single shell’ drops across the disputed Yellow Sea maritime border.

‘In case the enemies recklessly counter our counterstrikes, all striking forces will turn the (South’s) five islands … into a sea of flames,’

Pyongyang said in a Tuesday statement.

The Korean Peninsula has been locked in a cycle of escalating military rhetoric following the participation of nuclear-capable US B-52 and B-2 stealth bombers in the recent controversial two-month-long joint military maneuvers with South Korea.

The move by the US prompted North Korea to step up its war rhetoric, authorizing its army to launch ‘preemptive nuclear strikes’ on the United States.

Pyongyang has also said its military should be prepared to attack ‘all US military bases in the Asia-Pacific region, including the US mainland, Hawaii, and Guam [Island].’

MSH/HN

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"N Korea fired into eastern waters"