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Post by jdredd on Sept 11, 2012 14:14:38 GMT -5
Now that we have Middle East fatigue, I am hearing a lot of saber rattling at China. Is that really the direction we want to go? Of course we will blame any confrontations on them, but any conflict with them will be a self-fulfilling prophecy IMO. We never learn from history so we are doomed to repeat it.
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Post by jdredd on Sept 13, 2012 16:16:44 GMT -5
Well I guess old Dredd is wrong again. Just when I thought we were ready to switch our número UNO enemy from Islam to China, those pesky Islamists start making new trouble. Not to mention we still haven't done Bibi's bidding and attacked Iran yet.
It's tough being the world's policeman, not to mention expensive.
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Post by jdredd on Sept 14, 2012 16:28:21 GMT -5
Oh wait, I have it wrong again. Hasn't Mitt been saying RUSSIA is our main geopolitical enemy?
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Post by jdredd on Sept 21, 2012 12:32:54 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/us/politics/obamas-evolution-to-a-tougher-line-on-china.html?ref=world "As Mr. Obama runs for re-election, his tougher line toward Beijing is showing itself on several fronts. The White House has filed two major cases in the past three months against China at the World Trade Organization, both of which Mr. Obama promoted to autoworkers in the Rust Belt. On the same day as the latest trade action, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta announced plans in Tokyo to help Japan deploy a new missile-defense system, which has aroused suspicion in Beijing. With Mitt Romney charging that Mr. Obama has not stood up enough to Chinese leaders, China has suddenly become a focal point in the presidential campaign, one that encompasses both security and economic concerns and puts to the test the president’s management of a crucial, and occasionally combustible, relationship." As someone famously said, all politics are local. To prove he's not "weak" on China, Obama is taking a hard line. And what is the beef all about, anyway? Geography, of course. We fought a four-year war with Japan to prevent their domination of the Western Pacific and it's resources, and now some people feel threatened again by China. Haven't wars been fought for hundreds of millenia over lands with good game or sources of water? Nothing has changed except which resources are valued most, and at the moment it is fossil fuels.
So it's probably inevitable we will be in conflict with the nation that has been the major power on and off in Asia for the last 4,000 years or so. What do I care? I won't be around that much longer.
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Post by jdredd on Sept 25, 2012 2:53:25 GMT -5
So it's not just the USA that has boneheaded foreign policies. I've seen pictures of ransacked Honda and Toyota dealers in China. Are Japan and China going to screw up trade in this time of recession over some dumb ass islands?
Hmmmmmm, I wonder how we can take advantage of this?
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Post by EscapeHatch on Sept 26, 2012 20:47:46 GMT -5
I just happen to be passing by on my way to an Obama Bashing party when I saw this thread. It's a good topic, JD.
Both China and Russia are adversaries. That's the bad news. The good news is, China is suffering a boom-to-bust effect from too fast and much of growth that their creative monetary system can't cover and Russia is
Russia.
I'll tell you, JD. You need to make an offer for the islands. Jdredd's Island needs to branch out. Your original business plan was very attractive. Why not buy up the postage stamps in question and make it into a resort that both Chinese and Japanese elites can mingle and compare tan lines?
It could be good for world peace.
I sure miss everyone. Business sucks, but, not as bad as the a$$hole Hussein. I take comfort in that. At least.
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Post by jdredd on Sept 26, 2012 22:16:36 GMT -5
Have you seen those islands? Just rocky pieces of crap as far as I'm concerned. No beaches, no nothing.
Glad you could stop by though, EH. Hopefully we'll be here for a long time to come, and you can come back eventually and join the party again!
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Post by jdredd on Oct 1, 2012 0:09:38 GMT -5
www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/china-trade-policy-and-2012-election_653208.html" Free trade might not be the first casualty of an American election campaign, but it is right up there in the top rank. President Obama is bashing Mitt Romney for sending jobs to China when he ran Bain Capital, and Romney is returning the favor by accusing Obama of failing to label China a currency manipulator, and “being China’s doormat at the expense of America’s workers.” When the alleged unfair trading partner is China, which is threatening its neighbors and our allies with territorial claims backed up by a growing military, and using the earnings from trade to fund that military’s new ability to project power by adding aircraft carriers to its fleet, there is no reason to expect calm analysis from vote-hungry politicians." "Free" trade might be coming back to bite the GOP? Who da thunk? They were so eager to ship our manufacturing to China to punish the unions, and now America may have to pay the piper...
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Post by jdredd on Feb 20, 2013 21:14:20 GMT -5
The big news of the day: China is hacking into our secrets. Yeah, so? Which country ISN'T prying into other countries online? Who is this Mandiant company who has issued the latest warning? Which special interests do THEY serve? I bet there are a lot of special interests who would like nothing more than a new Cold War, this time with China. It would be money in the bank for a lot of people. Certainly money better spent than on welfare "bums" like your granny.
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Post by jdredd on Jan 19, 2014 1:14:26 GMT -5
www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/16/us-military-dominance-pacific-decline-says-top-adm/"The Obama administration’s ballyhooed military “pivot” to Asia is running into some frank talk from the top U.S. commander in the Pacific. Three years after the Pentagon said it was de-emphasizing Europe in favor of the Asia-Pacific region, NavyAdm. Samuel J. Locklear III said this week that U.S. dominance has weakened in the shadow of a more aggressive China. “Our historic dominance that most of us in this room have enjoyed is diminishing, no question,” Adm. Locklear, chief of U.S. Pacific Command, said Wednesday at a naval conference in Virginia. Although Adm. Locklear said it is obvious that Chinese military power is growing, he suggested that it is unclear whether China will seek to be a hard adversary to the U.S. in the long term, so Washington should be working overtime on steering Beijing toward a cooperative security posture." "Frank talk", huh? Why are top brass always pushing for more aggressive foreign policies? Can we really "steer" China, or is that just code for pressuring them to do what we tell them or else.
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Post by jdredd on Jan 19, 2014 1:19:48 GMT -5
www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/power-pacific_774809.htmlAs China gains strength, militarily and economically, the strategic interests of the United States will lie increasingly in the Pacific. As China commissions aircraft carriers, we redeploy ours with plans to have some 60 percent of the fleet and 6 of our 11 carriers in the Pacific by 2020. Still, as Guy Taylor and Rowan Scarborough report in the Washington Times: “Our historic dominance that most of us in this room have enjoyed is diminishing, no question,” Adm. [Samuel] Locklear, chief of U.S. Pacific Command, said Wednesday at a naval conference in Virginia. Admiral Locklear added this: “We need to think about all scenarios, not just the ones we’ve been dealing with over the last several years where we’ve enjoyed basic air superiority and basic sea superiority. There are places in the world where in this century we won’t have them.” What are our "strategic interests", and who will decide what they are? Do they include an arms race with China? I'm sure there are some American special interests that are hoping so.
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Post by Turk on Jan 31, 2014 19:48:52 GMT -5
Oh hell let's just save some money and nuke'em now. Makes perfect financial sense.
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Post by jdredd on Feb 5, 2014 1:54:57 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2014/02/05/world/asia/philippine-leader-urges-international-help-in-resisting-chinas-sea-claims.html?hpw&rref=world&_r=0"MANILA — President Benigno S. Aquino III called on Tuesday for nations around the world to do more to support the Philippines in resisting China’s assertive claims to the seas near his country, drawing a comparison to the West’s failure to support Czechoslovakia against Hitler’s demands for Czech land in 1938. Like Czechoslovakia, the Philippines faces demands to surrender territory piecemeal to a much stronger foreign power and needs more robust foreign support for the rule of international law if it is to resist, President Aquino said in a 90-minute interview in the wood-paneled music room of the presidential palace." Isn't this typical? So-called "allies" trying to drag us into their disputes.
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Post by jdredd on Feb 5, 2014 2:23:35 GMT -5
sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/03/china-to-ramp-up-military-spending/?ribbon-ad-idx=15&rref=world&module=Ribbon&version=origin®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=World&pgtype=article"China already spends more on its military than any country in the world except the United States. Now, as defense budgets at the Pentagon and in many NATO countries shrink, China’s People’s Liberation Army is gearing up for a surge in new funding, according to a new report. China will spend $148 billion on its military this year, up from $139.2 billion in 2013, according to IHS Jane’s, a defense industry consulting and analysis company. The United States spends far more – a forecast $574.9 billion this year – but that is down from $664.3 billion in 2012 after budget cuts slashed spending. By next year China will spend more on defense than Britain, Germany and France combined, according to IHS. By 2024, it will spend more than all of Western Europe, it estimates." This is a typical propaganda piece for creating an enemy. A pointless article that just makes China sound sinister, preparing the American public for an escalating adversarial relationship with designated "enemy". I wouldn't be surprised if this article was planted by someone in the Pentagon. Hopefully I will be gone before this all comes to fruition, and the Millennials are too stupid to know they are being manipulated so they deserve what they get.
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Post by jdredd on Feb 12, 2014 14:41:04 GMT -5
www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/feb/11/harris-china-west-2014/"The leader of the U.S. Pacific Fleet had strong words about the behavior of the rising Chinese Navy at a speech Tuesday in San Diego, where he also underscored the importance of future technologies by wearing Google Glass as a kind of teleprompter during his talk. Adm. Harry Harris said he is concerned about a pattern of increasingly assertive behavior by the Chinese in the East and South China seas as the Chinese Navy grows." First it was Admiral Locklear trying to ramp up paranoia about China, and now Admiral Harris spouts off. Who gave the Navy permission to be so confrontational? This is why the American public lost trust in the military in Vietnam, because the top brass became so politically movitated.
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