@tartare
Sorry, I missed the irony/sarcasm. The text medium doesn't always get tone across.
Military is but one of many tools used by those in the seats of power. To say the US is "powerless" is not correct, but two things arise from that observation:
1. The SCS is China's "backyard"
2. Having the wit to use other means of power or suasion is highly dependent upon the people in office at the time. Over the past 25 years, our "policy" in re the SCS has been subject to some interesting variations. All of a sudden, the rest of America has woken up to something I was concerned with, professionally, in the early 90's.
Nukes give a deterrent effect, not a carte blanche. Ya still have to do the hard work on the ground if you really want to change things.