Captain Jim Fennell

The Chinese believe that the South China Sea is their sovereign territory and they don't care about the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei.

They're disregarding them.

We're not saying that we...

are disregarding the existence of Venezuela or any other Caribbean nation.

We're just saying that we're not going to allow outside influence to come in and steal resources and prop up dictators and narco-dictators like Maduro.

So I think that's the real difference is we're standing up actually for the smaller nations, whereas China, if you go back to 2010 at the ASEAN summit, their foreign ministry said, we're a big country and we can do whatever we want.

That's not what America is saying to the countries of Latin America.

We're not saying we're a big country and we can do whatever we want and you'll obey us.

What we're saying is we're trying to free you up so that you can have access to your own resources, you can be sovereign nations, and we will protect you from rapacious nations like China, Russia, Iran, and others, and Cuba.

So that's the real difference.

We're standing up for small nations, whereas China says we will do whatever we want because you're a small nation.

They take the view of might makes right.

I don't think that's what we're standing up for right now.

I think we can.

We have the ability to interdict like we're doing right now, whether it's a quarantine or a blockade of what's going on in and out of Venezuela, the Chinese are turning around.

We have the ability to provide influence into the Middle East.

My great concern is that we've seen the power and the influence of maritime assets in this operation off of Venezuela in a relatively benign area or benign environment.

I'm concerned about what happens if the Chinese decide to take Taiwan right now, or what happens if China

decides to do something against the Philippines or as they've been pressing recently against Japan and the entire Ryukyu Island chain.

Are we able to operate and do the same kind of operations 9,000 miles away from CONUS?