Syria won't be the cause.
Given the recent bellicose statements and out-and-out nationalism from both China and Japan, today's announcement that Japan is going to start reprocessing it's tonnes of nuclear waste, producing 8 TONNES of weapons grade Pu239 per year, the stakes just went up BIGTIME. Japan has attacked China christ knows how many times and they'll do it again. Quick sums suggest that should make them either the third or fourth largest Nuclear Power in the World. Given they attacked the other three (USA, Russia & China) last Century, there's some food for thought.
Given that each time, the 1894 Battle of Lushunkou (Japan v China http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lushunkou), the 1904 Battle of Port Arthur (Japan v Russia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Port_Arthur) and the 1941 Pearl Harbour (Japan v USA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor), the invasion of Malaya (a couple of hours before Pearl Harbour - Japan v Commonwealth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Invasion_of_Malaya) they launched massive preemptive strikes, I'd have to say a militant, nationalistic and nuclear equipped Japan is about the scariest thing I could imagine. Yeah, the UN is 'apparently' supervising the reprocessing, lets see how that goes, they haven't done so well with Iran have they (and Pu239 is more easily separated from U238 than U235 - they have different solubilities and don't require the level of effort).
I'd say the 'undeclared' Battle of the China Sea is about to get awful fucking real, the Japs don't fuck around and surprise/preemptive strikes without a declaration of war are their forte.
Given the recent bellicose statements and out-and-out nationalism from both China and Japan, today's announcement that Japan is going to start reprocessing it's tonnes of nuclear waste, producing 8 TONNES of weapons grade Pu239 per year, the stakes just went up BIGTIME. Japan has attacked China christ knows how many times and they'll do it again. Quick sums suggest that should make them either the third or fourth largest Nuclear Power in the World. Given they attacked the other three (USA, Russia & China) last Century, there's some food for thought.
Given that each time, the 1894 Battle of Lushunkou (Japan v China http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lushunkou), the 1904 Battle of Port Arthur (Japan v Russia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Port_Arthur) and the 1941 Pearl Harbour (Japan v USA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor), the invasion of Malaya (a couple of hours before Pearl Harbour - Japan v Commonwealth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Invasion_of_Malaya) they launched massive preemptive strikes, I'd have to say a militant, nationalistic and nuclear equipped Japan is about the scariest thing I could imagine. Yeah, the UN is 'apparently' supervising the reprocessing, lets see how that goes, they haven't done so well with Iran have they (and Pu239 is more easily separated from U238 than U235 - they have different solubilities and don't require the level of effort).
I'd say the 'undeclared' Battle of the China Sea is about to get awful fucking real, the Japs don't fuck around and surprise/preemptive strikes without a declaration of war are their forte.