The USN aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt offloaded the majority of its crew in Guam where they went into quarantine. At the time, around 5 percent of the sailors tested positive for CoVID-19. The captain sent a letter, dated March 30, 2020, to many but not all of those in his chain of command and some that weren’t.
The letter was leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle and published March 31, 2020.
The captain was relieved of his command because of poor judgment.
On April 1, 2020 the Global Times posted an article titled, “Fate of virus-hit US aircraft carrier worsened by Cold War mentality,” An excerpt reads:
The US is putting the lives of its sailors under the unnecessary threat of the coronavirus due to an outdated Cold War mentality, and there is no need to maintain the carrier’s combat readiness, Chinese experts said.
The Theodore Roosevelt was in the South China Sea to carry out provoking military actions in mid-March, but these actions were not necessary to the US’ national security, and no one would launch an attack on the US in the first place, Zhang Junshe, a senior research fellow at the People’s Liberation Army Naval Military Studies Research Institute, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
“The US is not facing the threat of war, but it is seeking enemies everywhere it goes with a Cold War mentality, looking for unnecessary trouble,” Zhang said.
“Even if all crew members on the aircraft carrier disembark and go into quarantine, no other country will wage war on the US,” Zhang said.
From a Claremont Review of Books editorial written in October 2018 about tensions in the South China Sea:
“The Chinese strategist Sun Tzu admonished that “to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is.” China seems to be taking Sun Tzu at his word as it moves towards strategic goals without provoking an armed response from the United States, or anyone else.”
Ponder that somber warning in our current situation.
You might think this pandemic can’t be deliberate. I say, you must rethink what “deliberate” means. Here’s an interesting nine-minute video from Vox that discusses “How Wildlife Trade is Linked to Coronavirus.” Consider carefully what is said from just before the 3-minute mark to the end.
Then, you decide.
Mandated Memoranda 