Reality Check of the Day: China v. USA

One of my great realizations from living in the UK for a couple years is just how utterly the U.S. media lacks any perspective on American military actions abroad. The 'abroad' is completely redundant, of course - unlike every other country on earth, aside from our distant independence and single civil war, the U.S. military has NEVER had military action that wasn't abroad.

This piece in Newsweek caught my eye:

"The confrontation last week between a U.S. ship and five Chinese naval craft was just the latest of many low-grade military clashes in the South China Sea, the site of numerous territorial disputes. It was eerily similar to the "Hainan Island" incident in 2001..."

But the punch line was the ending quote:

"This confrontation had been preceded by increasingly bold behavior on the part of People's Liberation Army ships and planes. "They seem to be militarily more aggressive," said Obama's new National Intelligence director, Dennis Blair..."

Um. Yeah.

For the reality-based coalition, here's a handy world map showing the location of the United States, China, and the 2001 and 2009 incidents between the U.S. and Chinese military:



Who, exactly, is being "militarily more aggressive"?