Voice of America aired an analysis of the escalating arms race over trade routes in various seas to establish control over trade routes. What’s unusual is that China, Russia, and Iran are working together conducting naval exercises. There is global concern this may turn into offensive attacks, but the media ignores it in the U.S. Why?
https://youtu.be/Na4Gn1HZRMI
Brad Johnson retired as a Senior Operations Officer and Chief of Station with the Central Intelligence Agency’s Directorate of Operations. Having served domestically and abroad, many assignments included areas of armed conflict. He served overseas in direct support of the War Against Terrorism and he took multiple assignments overseas as Chief of Station. A certified senior expert in counterintelligence, surveillance and surveillance detection, his proven expertise in dangerous operational environments included the highest level of training available in the USG and globally. His tradecraft expertise was honed in dangerous, difficult, and restrictive operational environments. Brad is an enrolled member of The Cherokee Nation, a Federally Recognized Tribe.
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brad johnson here americans for
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intelligence reform intelreform.org it
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is
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17 february 2021 and
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a very interesting development that
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oddly enough is is being
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reported by voice of america voa but
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getting very little press coverage
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anywhere else
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but that is significant and important
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the russians
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and the iranians are currently doing
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uh joint navy exercises in the indian
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ocean and this is an important area
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out there not far from these areas where
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china is pushing so hard to
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uh take control over trade routes and
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all of that by controlling the
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south china sea and what we’re seeing
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here is a very interesting thing now
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russia and iran
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they they’re again i i describe these
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guys as kind of frenemies i mean they
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have their areas of cooperation
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and they have their areas of competition
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and this is one of those areas where
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while they both don’t you know it’s it
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would be rare to have some sort of navy
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conflict where the two of them are
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natural allies
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but yet it is in both their interest to
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be holding these
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naval exercises now there was there was
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these happened in the past and by the
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way
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iran says if these are done uh
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to enhance security of maritime
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trade i think that’s fine and to be
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share information and counter terrorism
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and all those sorts of things so what
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just very briefly what that means of
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course is by
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by enhancing the security of trade
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meaning that they control the trade in
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that area
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and to be ant counterterrorism for the
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iranians counterterrorism means anti-us
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so that’s what they’re what they’re
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saying russia is now part of this
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russia you know is kind of 80
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enemy in the united states and 20
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overlap of interest it’s a pity because
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actually there’s probably a lot that
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could be done
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jointly where there’s a lot of
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friendship
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of basis for friendship between the two
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countries it’s just something that’s
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because of the past not going to happen
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anytime soon
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so taking place with this in in 2019
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version of this uh joint exercise these
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navy exercises
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was china very interesting iran china
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and russia doing these joint exercises
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and as we know
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china is very interested in controlling
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the seas the oceans
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for to control the the new silk road in
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essence
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they’re not openly involved with this
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although iran has been for long
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time trying to create a better
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relationship there to offset
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the united states this time around india
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is involved now for india and china to
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do joint exercises together would just
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be non-starter
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they’d probably actually start shooting
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each other because they are having
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shooting wars shooting
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battles not a war uh on the on some of
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these border these these
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himalaya type mountain range regions
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that where there’s there’s uh
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disagreement over precisely where that
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border is between the two countries
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they’ve been shooting and killing each
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other and they’re in
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relatively small numbers where you know
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say a dozen or so people are
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either who hurt or wounded or killed in
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in the fighting that sort of thing
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and india has just bought a whole bunch
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more tanks from russia
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uh to you know to create a stronger land
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army in case this uh this should erupt
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into a larger battle with
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china so they’re not involved but this
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is very interesting that
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india now is trying to get involved in
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that navy
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uh exercises to develop experience and
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and uh and their power in that uh area
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of
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of interest to them off the indian coast
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uh this is something i’ve been pointing
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out for a long time
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the navy the south china sea
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driven by china is creating an arms race
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for navies in in the world it’s one
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where the united states
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hasn’t really participated
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i would say we’re kind of not looking at
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this for the problem that it really is
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but just recently in the last year or
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two
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china has put as has built and put out
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to see
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three aircraft carriers also they’re
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building a submarine fleet and the first
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submarine
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modern submarine has uh either just
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about to be launched or been launched
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and if you look at submarines and
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aircraft carriers what are they built
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for i mean this is not some defensive
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thing you put around your
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your your continent or home base or
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something
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these are offensive weapons and if you
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look at world war ii
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the the submarine can be a very
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effective offensive weapon
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so they’re building an offensive fleet
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that can
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attack places and we all know that
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taiwan is very high on their list
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first chance they get chinese going in
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so we’re seeing this
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arms race begin to develop particularly
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in the pacific
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which again if you look at world war ii
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this this is an
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important area and important to have a
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dominating navy in that area
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where you see the normal the western
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powers for example
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great britain that traditionally was a
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naval power the united states
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they’re just not building they’re kind
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of content with what they have which the
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united states in particular still has a
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very important navy
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a force to be dealt with the brits
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they’ve they’ve got some
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navy power as well uh some of western
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europe does as well so i mean it’s not a
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a done deal sort of thing but this is
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how this is shaping
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up and that’s not even being discussed
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as far as i know this has been uh has
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been completely ignored as an issue
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but this naval exercise that’s taking
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out the place out in that area
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off the coast is very important very
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significant
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of the recognition by the rest of the
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world
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that this is a problem that’s forming
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and they see you know storm clouds on
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the horizon
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and want to be prepared so it doesn’t
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mean it’s going to you know blast open
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into war
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but it’s one of those things that the
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circumstances that have to be
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in place for it to erupt into war if
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someday the circumstances are right for
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it to happen
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the indians are all over this and they
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would be a natural
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ally for the united states although
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they’ve long been working with um
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with russia for weapons and these sorts
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of agreements will russia and india
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would they be somebody that could offset
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china you know probably not not by
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themselves or too many
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individual issues between them but at
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least it’s something that’s being kicked
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around and looked at
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so again another hot spot area to watch
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and let’s hope it doesn’t uh doesn’t
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erupt into violence at some point in the
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near
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or medium term
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you
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