U.S. President Barack Obama and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard's decision to deploy U.S. Marines to northern Australia close to Asia and the angry riposte from China show how relations between the world's superpower and the once and future great power have cooled to the point where it should be a matter of grave concern not only to Chinese and Americans, but to the whole world.
Just three years ago, as Obama entered the White House, all the talk was of a potential G-2, Sino-U.S. leadership of the world. That would have been bad enough for everyone else — when the elephants dance, the mice are liable to get hurt. But today's increasing distrust between Beijing and Washington verging on hostility is worse — when the elephants fight, says an old Kikuyu proverb, the grass gets crushed. Anything smaller than an elephant risks becoming collateral damage.
Obama announced the deployment of marines, eventually building up to 2,500 soldiers in Australia itself. He told the Australian Parliament that he had "made a deliberate and strategic decision — as a Pacific nation, the United States will play a larger and long-term role in shaping this region and its future." Obama stressed that the move was proof that America was a Pacific and a pacific power with peaceful intentions towards everyone.