This is John Batcher, conversation with James Finel, co-author of a new book Embracing Communist

China, America's Greatest Strategic Failure.

The puzzle here is what is to be done with the Chinese ramming of a Coast Guard vessel from the Philippines,

our ally, Defense Pact, come together to rescue if surrounding the same vessel with many many warships in the South China Sea

in the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines Filipino waters.

The question is what is to be done.

Jim immediately speaks to the deploying of the US naval forces

that have been stretched to the Middle East, but he also has a very clear suggestion

about the U.S. strength in the region and throughout the world.

Jim Finel, on the incident in the South China Sea that looks like escalation.

More of this tonight. The U.S. Navy is, you know, we're sending back one of the carriers that was from the west coast.

I think it's the Teddy Roosevelt's heading back from the Persian Gulf.

So she should be in the in the area through the South China Sea probably in the next week.

But she again will go back to the West Coast.

So we're still waiting for the George Washington to come out of the West Coast to be permanently for deployed again out to Japan.

We do have an expeditionary strike group. We have cruisers and destroyers. We have submarine forces.

We have air forces from Pacific Air Forces and the Army and the Marines. We're there and we could do something. But this is the challenge to us because if we do not act now and we do not help the Filipinos in this time of need,

then it will seriously degrade what we hear from so many of the experts in Washington, which is America's strength is its alliance structure.