China Series: Pay No Attention To The Dragon Behind The Curtain
Reading these Chinese military press releases is like reading “The Confucius of Oz”, except the flying monkeys are Chengdu J-10’s and the way to safety involves repetition of Mao’s Little Red Book, not slippers.
China increased it’s military budget by 18% today, not including “weapons purchases and other key items”. As expected, the Chinese Legislature’s spokesman tells us that “China is committed to the path of peaceful development…and China does not and will not pose a threat to any country”.
Except, of course, the United States.
Mark Helprin, a senior fellow at the Clairemont Institute, writes an article today in the Washington Post titled “The Nuclear Threat From China”.
Wow! What a warmonger. Why won’t evil conservatives just leave China alone? If anything, the United States should allow other nations to flourish, while we limit our own destructive, patriarchal power.
If the dems win in ‘08, should I celebrate with Rosetta Stone Chinese Language software, or another handcranked radio/potassium iodide gift basket?
March 4th, 2007 at 10:57 pm
Arch,
Come on man. I personally am much more worried about the fact that China owns us financially. If they stopped letting us borrow money it would be lights out, besides the fact that it’s gonna be our responsibility to pay all this money back (and that is the Republican party’s fault, they’ve spent way too much on unnecessary crap these past 7 yrs).
There’s no doubt that we should keep an eye on China, but don’t go neo-con on me & talk (hint at?) pre-emptive strike. I’m terrified that we’ll be at war w/ Iran before the year’s up as it is, & that will seriously f things up. We don’t need to be talking shit to China right now; we spend a ton on our military as well, it seems shady to get indignant when other similarly-situated (I know that’s a stretch, but I think both the Internet and all the young Chinese getting college educations over here being committed to making a positive change re: the quality of living in China will bear fruit w/in 15-20 yrs) countries do the same. Wow that sentence was way too long
March 4th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
Oh yeah, you should learn Chinese anyways btw. I’ve been trying to get myself motivated to start learning it, but unfortunately I drink…soon enough
March 5th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
I’m plenty concerned with China’s owning of us financially as well, and yes, the Republicans spent way too much in the past 7 years, and abandoning conservative fiscal principles is one of the reasons why they are no longer in power.
The last thing I want is a pre-emptive strike on China, but the point of the post was to highlight the continued double talk of China in the media regarding it’s military build-up, as well as the liberal apathy towards China’s well-stated strategy and desired place of power in the world.
Technically, we’ve been “at war” with Iran since 1979, and they continue to fund the guys who kill our boys in Iraq. I don’t think many people agree that an invasion is the answer (I don’t), but I think everyone can agree that they are a serious threat. I’d bet we’re alot more likely to see targeted strikes by Israel’s Air Force on nuclear sites than we are a full-fledged invasion of Iran.
The Iranian people are very pro-America, especially the students. I would love to see an uprising and toppling of the regime they have now from the inside…In fact, I think that’s the only way it will ever happen.
Back to China..Alot of Christians are popping up, as well as the educated class you pointed out. I’m hoping those, among many, factors will combine for a perfect storm to dethrone the guys that are in power now, but that is a longer term and far more complex situation than we have Iran.
I would love to learn Chinese. Maybe I’ll get that Rosetta Stone software regardless of who wins or loses in 2008!
March 5th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
You’re very right about the youth of Iran, they crave Western music, art, literature, etc… and that is very promising.
I don’t really think any of this is an Iran/Iraq thing, it’s a Sunni/Shiite thing & I don’t think anyone is surprised to learn that support (in any form possible) is funneled to each respective group by the hardliners. I truly believe that as long as we keep an eye on things, w/i 15 yrs there will be a change.
However, for that to happen, we can’t allow Israel to strike Iran & create a whole new generation of Arabs who hate America b/c they see our unfailing support of a country that bombs them back a hundred yrs as BS, and who can blame them. Israel was just waiting for a reason to bomb the hell out of Lebanon, & in the process they hurt countless civilians (& I know Hezbollah hid out among civilians, but then they also were the only ones there providing aid & reconstruction support in the aftermath; it’s easy to figure out which one of those will be remembered by the common people). These young civilians will only see/know one thing - that Israel destroyed their families/friends/villages/etc… & they will know that the US backed them up on it. Arab nations are certainly not above propaganda/indoctrination of their youth; if we can keep it all diplomatic & allow tensions to ease, our generation can move past that.
March 5th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
China has nothing on us militarily. We could do nothing for the next 20 years, and they would have problems still catching up. Their economy is what will catch up to us and pass us.
And of course China is “going for peace”. They believe Tawaiin belongs to them. Are we willing to risk U.S. lives to protect Tawaiin?
Reagan had it right. He made the Soviets go bankrupt by building up our military. That won’t work with China.
I find it ironic that we would invade Iraq instead of a real enemy like China. Personally, I don’t think we should invade any country right now. We need to stop policing the world. If the muslims want to live in the stone age, let them. They wont’ be stupid enough to do anything against us, they know if they do, their whole country will be gone. That’s the reason the Soviets never did anything to us.
China is not our friend. Russia is not our friend. France and Israel are the top countries that spy on us. Saudi Arabia had most of the 9/11 hijackers. Our country has few friends. Get out of the middle east. Leave them alone. If some terrorist group declares war on us, send the special forces in, and eliminate them. I don’t know when the neo-cons hijacked the Republican party with their ideology, but I can see why people are starting to get pissed at them.
Ron Paul for president!
March 7th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Michael, from what I know of the label “neo-con”, it’s not something I’d be ashamed to be called. It seems to me that label is hated more by liberals and libertarians than by true Christian conservatives. Should we have gone into Iraq? Absolutely. We got rid of a regime that had the means and the will and the stupidity to kill us. I’m sick and tired of people buying everything the media constantly repeats - that there were no WMDs (there were), that there was no terrorism presence in Iraq (there was), that Bush lied about it all (he didn’t), and that the war in Iraq is both a mistake and a failure (it’s neither). I love you buddy, but you need to wake up.
March 8th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Then Maybe you should re-read what I said Jon. I no where in my post said Iraq was a failure, they did not have WMDs, or they did not have terrorists.
It’s funny how neo-cons like yourself try to stifle debate by comparing constitutionalists who are concerned about our war in Iraq to the stupid liberals that don’t know what they are talking about. If we invaded Iraq (for Terrorism, WMDs, as you list), we should have invaded Syria, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and a host of other countries for the same thing. China is a much bigger threat than Iraq would ever be. Iran’s leader and North Korea’s leader seem much more stupid than Saddam. We should invade them too. I’m wide awake. I can call you a neo-con from now on if you want!! Maybe you should be a little more open minded buddy
March 8th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Michael,
I was wrong to assume your reasons for opposing the war in Iraq were the ones I mentioned above. Enlighten me. Why do you think we shouldn’t have gone there?
I am not a military analyst. I can’t tell you why we aren’t at war with other dangerous countries like China or Iran right now (it’s possible that we will be sometime in the future). I do, however, agree that if we were to go to war with any of the countries you listed, it would be justified.
Your logic says “if we go to war with one bad country, we should go to war with them all”. That’s like saying “if you buy one homeless family a meal, you should buy EVERY homeless family a meal”. We do what we can afford, not only as far as resources go, but in global political strategy as well.
Every possibility is gamed out to extraordinary levels, and I won’t pretend to understand which country we should and which country we shouldn’t go to war with. I’m not in DC helping to play the strategy game. All I can tell you is that, in my opinion, the Iraq war was justified.
I’m not trying to offend you or make you “look like an idiot”, by the way. It’s completely civil on my end.
March 15th, 2007 at 8:55 am
Iraq had no direct threat the the United States of America. Simple as that buddy. Simple as that.
May 7th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Google, Microsft and Yahoo are evil. They won’t allow me to advertise my website, www.chinaisevil.com, IN THE US. Google has also blocked my site from its search results, IN AMERICA, for the term “China.” Once they agreed to censor in China, they lost their souls.
Chris Langdon, qiology@aol.com