The Next Sea War

The other day I wrote about possibility of future naval battle in the Western pacific. I wrote:

The Future War at Sea may not involve the US, but the fleets of the Tiger Economies in the Western Pacific, especially those of Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Maylaysia, and Singapore. They may be joined by poorer, but sizable fleets from The Phillipines, Veitnam and Indonesia. The conflict will likely be over the Spratly Islands, with their vital oil reserves, territories which many in the region claim as their own.

Then today I see find this on Stategypage:

In recent months a number of obscure territorial disputed between various East Asian powers have been heating up;

@ Spratly Islands. The Spratlys are a group of some 100 islets, atolls, and reefs that total only about 5 square kilometers of land, but sprawl across some 410,000 square kilometers of the South China Sea. Set amid some of the world’s most productive fishing grounds, the islands are believed to have enormous oil and gas reserves. Several nations have overlapping claims on the group. About 45 of the islands are currently occupied by small numbers of military personnel from China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

No, I'm not cairvoyant! It's been building for a long time and just makes sense. These countries have been increasing their fleets for decades and its just a matter of time before things come to a head, especially in this oil starved planet.