Elaine Meinel Supkis
The US wants China to not become a full-scale nation. This stupid idea is beyond stupid: China is our main buyer of our bonds we sell to pay for our military! Rice offers to negotiate with Iran but only if they give up everything first. Another monument to US stupidity. And we continue to attack Sudan for creating a refugee/death toll in Darfur that is much smaller than the one we are causing in Iraq! Another day, another stupid diplomatic gesture.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates called on China Thursday to explain its intentions in undertaking a major military buildup that the Pentagon warns is altering the military balance in the region."There is no question that the Chinese are building significant capacity," Gates said. "Our concern is over their intent."
*snip*
"Tell us more about where you're headed, what are your intentions," he said.
Oh my god. Stop the presses. China, a huge nation, is building up its military power because they are one of the top 5 economic powers on earth as all as the #1 nation in population and top nation in land mass. How dare they have what we have! I remember just before WWI: England wanted Germany to stop being a nation and be a client state instead. This belly flopped. And caused not one but two world wars.
Britain wanted to stop the arms race and demanded all other nations reduce their own arms. Supposedly, this would bring peace. The negotiations to limit arms was lauded at that time by all the peace agitators but this was simply poor Britain's desperate attempt at keeping imperial power while unable to support it as Britain's industrial advantage over the world was rapidly melting away. Germany and the US had caught up by 1913. Interestingly, it was the very next year we had WWI.
Other nations are not as worried about China acting like a normal nation except for Japan. Japan, lest we forget, tried to take over all of Asia and make their neighbors their slaves. Literally. A lot of people who were alive from that time are still alive and can remember things. There is a lot of bad blood concerning this because the Japanese killed millions and millions of people of other nations when they did this. We back them, not their victims, in this struggle for power. Japan wants to use its US forces to do its bidding which is why our navy is sailing around Japan, protecting them and not the wide-open shores of the US.
Indeed, the Chinese have a point if they ask us to vacate the China Seas!
Lee said that Washington and Tokyo are worried about China's military build-up, and seek more information on China's defense spending and intentions.But most Asian countries see China's actions not as a threat to regional security, but as a specific response to the cross-straits situation, he added.
"Of course, China would eventually want its armed forces to be equal in technology and capabilities to other world powers. But for the time being it is content to develop deterrent capability that is asymmetrical," Lee said.
"China's strategic weight and rapid transformation continues to be felt all over the world," said Lee, adding that "It is opening up and becoming more integrated with the world."
He spoke highly of China's strategy to emphasize peaceful emergence and integration into the community of nations, saying "it has pursued broad-based cooperation with the rest of the world, improved relations with Japan, and participated constructively in the Six-Party Talks."
This story won't make the news in the US, of course. It doesn't fit our propaganda concerning China. I was the only person to highlight the fact that Japan, pissed that we forced them to pay most of the costs of moving our miltiary bases around Japan, sold off a good hunk of the US bonds they hold. They sold them to CHINA. So, instead of supporting our military by buying our bonds which we must sell because our government is running in the red and won't tax our own corporations to pay for our military/industrial complex---whew! The Japanese aren't paying for this even at a 5% interest rate. So again, why are we protecting our #2 industrial/trade rival from our #1 industrial/trade rival?
HAHAHA! Here is the key to the madness! The US is worried about China's trade surplus with us but not Japan's even though BOTH are over 1/2 of our trade deficit which is nearing a trillion dollars a year! This is the knife in our guts! Not China building subs---but China paying for US building subs! If we piss off China, they won't pay for our navy. And note that the people doing business with China are siding with China in this dispute.
The irritation with the US mouthing off at everyone is quite evident. Our 'ally' is no ally and our trade partners are not trading. So pray tell, why are we protecting everyone there? This is beyond senseless, it is suicidal.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said here Thursday that Washington was willing to have nuclear talks with Iran if it observed related UN resolutions and suspended enrichment activities."I think it's time for Iran to change its tactics," Rice told a press conference, saying if it did so, "then we are prepared to ... sit with Iran and talk about whatever Iran would like to talk about."
Rice is the worst negotiator and diplomat in history. Period. This latest foray into the kitty litter box is stupid. We babble at the cat and it scratches us and we threaten to kill it and frankly, I have drawn so many cartoons in this goofy battle, I am running out of ideas. It just goes on and on and on. Demanding everyone surrender everything before anything happens is beyond childish.
It makes us look stupid. And we lose face. Over and over again. We are the laughingstock of the world.
LONDON, June 1 (Reuters) - The United Nations nuclear watchdog chief warned on Friday against the "new crazies" advocating military action to halt Iran's nuclear programme and said he did not want to see another war like that in Iraq."I wake every morning and see 100 Iraqis, innocent civilians, are dying," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director Mohamed ElBaradei said in an interview for BBC Radio.
"I have no brief other than to make sure we don't go into another war or that we go crazy into killing each other. You do not want to give additional argument to new crazies who say 'let's go and bomb Iran'," he said in a documentary, excerpts from which were published on the BBC's Web site in advance.
The lunacy of the world's biggest nuclear power, a nation that dropped not one but two nuclear bombs on two civilian cities...is tiresome. We may be blind to our own perfidy but no one else is buying it anymore. Europe limps along to get along with us so they can continue their unfair trade with us while we protect them from Russia while they poke at the Bear with a blunt, feeble twig. They aren't paying for our military. CHINA is paying for it. And they take avantage of our sea of red ink which is why the euro is strong.
Meanwhile, the Saudis who hate us are using us as their mercenaries. They are as cheap as the Japanese and are NOT buying all our bonds, either. Only the Chinese were buying them! So what gives? We attack our bankers who have business with Iran and we attack Iran because we want to control the oil sold to our bankers? Eh? Do I see a problem?
The support for US military actions on Iran are falling rapidly. Particularily since we need Iran to save our own asses from our own messes. Since we begged the Kitty to save us just three days ago, why are we threatening them today? Did the Cat pull our tail? Does the sun rise in the east? Hint to the State Department: cats love to toy with their mice before biting their heads off.
A top Russia expert at the State Department issued an unusually sharp public criticism on Thursday of Moscow’s behavior under President Vladimir V. Putin, describing the Kremlin as bullying its neighbors while silencing political opponents and suppressing individual rights at home.The comments, approved by the White House, are the latest volley of criticism between Washington and Moscow in recent days. Although the White House said this week that President Bush would play host to Mr. Putin on July 1 at the Bush family compound in Maine, the speech is likely to add tension at a time when the broader dialogue between Washington and Moscow is already taking the most caustic tones since the collapse of communism.
“We do no one any favors, least of all the Russian people and even their government, by abstaining from speaking out when necessary,” the Russia expert, David Kramer, the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said in a speech Thursday night before the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs.
Before joining the Government, he was a Senior Fellow at the Project for the New American Century, Associate Director of the Russian and Eurasian Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Assistant Director of Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, all in Washington.
The last folly of the day: a super-Zionist-neo-con who belongs to PNAC, the guys who want to have full domination of the earth via military power so they can steal the last olive groves and mud huts owned by Palestinian Muslims and Christians, is in charge of enraging Russia so there is an excuse to put more missiles in Europe and meance China.
This idiotic plan is a waste of time and money. Russia already tested their lovely MIRV missiles and can now destroy every single city in Europe in the first 2 hours of WWIII. The rest will destroy America in the third hour of WWIII.
Worse, we know the Chinese can destroy all our satellites which makes our war machine grind to a halt as everyone must try to use medieval methods of triangulating off of the stars, sun and moon to tell where on earth they are. And communications will be by horseback or signal fires, etc. And we will be fighting with our newfangled flint-tipped spears and arrows. Luckily, I know how to knap flint and shoot longbows as well as axe throwing and spear chucking. And I have a full suit of steel armor. And a horse!
I will be queen of my own lands! Heh!
On the other hand, I do like modern technology. So we should arrest Bush, Cheney and Condi and put them on trial for war crimes. So easy, no?
Karl -- a.k.a. John Ukec Lueth Ukec, the Sudanese ambassador to Washington -- held a news conference at the National Press Club yesterday to respond to President Bush's new sanctions against his regime. In his hour-long presentation, he described a situation in his land that bore no relation to reality.Genocide in the Darfur region? "The United States is the only country saying that what is happening in Darfur is a genocide," Ukec shouted, gesticulating wildly and perspiring from his bald crown. "I think this is a pretext."
Ah. So what about the more than 400,000 dead? "See how many people are dying in Darfur: None," he said.
And the 2 million displaced? "I am not a statistician."
Khartoum Karl went on to say that, all evidence to the contrary, his government does not support the murderous Janjaweed militia. "It cannot happen," he said, "so rule it out." As for the Sudanese regime itself: "We are the agents of peace, people like me, my colleagues who are in the central government of Sudan."
What's more, the good and peaceful leaders of Sudan were prepared to retaliate massively: They would cut off shipments of the emulsifier gum arabic, thereby depriving the world of cola.
OK: we killed more people in Iraq. By far. Over the last 17 years, a lot more people than those who died in the genocide in Darfur. Like 5x as many. And refugees: how about 4 million? So why are we yapping about Darfur? And why are the warmongers who are rank Zionists yapping about this in the Washington Post, the world's most bloody newspaper that exceeds the bloody NYT? I hope they cut off the supply of emulsifiers. It might help our own health here!
If the PNAC neo-cons want to fight the Janjaweed warriors, I'll teach them how to fight medieval style and send them to ride into war. Heh. All those creeps, trying to cling to a horse while screaming, 'Hellllp'. Right out of Cervantes.
Culture of Life News Main Page
An article I read the other day pretty much summarizes our inability to deal with China or Japan in economically and diplomatically rational ways. Westinghouse is going to ask the American taxpayers to finance a $5 billion loan to China for the purchase of cutting-edge design nuke plants. And a Japanese company owns 77% of Westinghouse. Oh, and taxpayers here have already contributed $300 million to the development of the reactor technology.
Amazing.
Story here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070530/ts_csm/areactors_1
Posted by: Daliwood | June 01, 2007 at 03:42 PM
I am a 2 tour Vietnam Veteran who recently retired after 36 years of working in the Defense Industrial Complex on many of the weapons systems being used by our forces as we speak.
Politicians make no difference.
We have bought into the Military Industrial Complex (MIC). If you would like to read how this happens please see:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/03/spyagency200703
Through a combination of public apathy and threats by the MIC we have let the SYSTEM get too large. It is now a SYSTEMIC problem and the SYSTEM is out of control. Government and industry are merging and that is very dangerous.
There is no conspiracy. The SYSTEM has gotten so big that those who make it up and run it day to day in industry and government simply are perpetuating their existance.
The politicians rely on them for details and recommendations because they cannot possibly grasp the nuances of the environment and the BIG SYSTEM.
So, the system has to go bust and then be re-scaled, fixed and re-designed to run efficiently and prudently, just like any other big machine that runs poorly or becomes obsolete or dangerous.
This situation will right itself through trauma. I see a government ENRON on the horizon, with an associated house cleaning.
The next president will come and go along with his appointees and politicos. The event to watch is the collapse of the MIC.
For more details see:
http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2006/11/inside-pentagon-procurement-from.html
Posted by: Ken Larson | June 01, 2007 at 08:46 PM
Hello, Ken. I grew up inside the CIA. Heh. This is why I am so sardonic. My dad was in the spook world since WWII. And he always thought he was saving America. He and I had huge fights for many, many years over this.
If you think the ruling class doesn't understand this Machine you are wrong. Their only mistake is to imagine the Machine wants THEM. Frankly, the Machine hates them and considers them weak. I agree. Their power is only if things go their way. Failure means death!
The Machine is much more than that: it is the Savior but just like Jesus coming in the Apocalypse, this Savior is also Kali, the Destroyer! Namely, it will kill us to save the EARTH.
I have been writing about this Machine all my life. I have known a number of SF writers and we hashed this thing out and half of them understood the Machine will destroy us while others like Asminov, for example, thought he could have a Nice Machine that won't kill all humans!
The fact is, controlling the Machine means saying 'No' to it. Instead, the temptation is to unleash the Power of the Machine and then dream of ruling the world and more: Living Forever!
I have many stories about this matter, maybe I should put them on my blog! It is kind of depressing reading, though.
Posted by: Elaine Meinel Supkis | June 01, 2007 at 10:02 PM
Elaine,
How well I can relate to your comments. I suggest you continue with your experiences in "The Machine", not only in your blog but in posting to others. Spread the word so to speak.
Posted by: Ken Larson | June 02, 2007 at 10:26 AM
Elaine,
How well I can relate to your comments. I suggest you continue with your experiences in "The Machine", not only in your blog but in posting to others. Spread the word so to speak.
Posted by: Ken Larson | June 02, 2007 at 10:26 AM
Elaine,
How well I can relate to your comments. I suggest you continue with your experiences in "The Machine", not only in your blog but in posting to others. Spread the word so to speak.
Posted by: Ken Larson | June 02, 2007 at 10:26 AM
The Machine is connected to the Outer Darkness. We can't control it in the bitter end. And all things connected to this place are connected to our elimination as a species.
A dreadful thing indeed.
Posted by: Elaine Meinel Supkis | June 03, 2007 at 12:21 AM