Last week, the Pentagon revealed that US troops are deployed as part of a task force to support the Philippines in its dispute with China in the South China Sea, a deployment that is a significant provocation toward Beijing.
The US Task Force Ayungin is named after the Philippine name for Second Thomas Shoal, a disputed reef that’s often the site of tense encounters and collisions between Chinese and Philippines vessels.
The Philippine military grounded a rusted-out World War II-era ship, the BRP Sierra Madre, on Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 to assert its claim to the reef and uses it as a base of operations. The encounters between the Chinese and Philippine vessels usually happen when Philippine boats are attempting to resupply the grounded ship.
Poster Comment:
We are stretching our military pretty thin, considering that the US is incapable of invading and taking Yemen. An admiral said we are running low missiles. And we have 53,000 sailors near Israel to protect their right to commit Genocide.