James Fallows says that the same geniuses who were gung-ho to invade Iraq, and who favor military aggression against Iran, are also thinking about a military confrontation with China.
Considering that China has been lending us the money to pay for our current military escapades, what do you think the chances are the Chinese would lend us money to invade China?
Possibly messing with China is a bad idea.
7 Comments 
The Bush administration already tried once .. anyone remember the Hainan Island incident April 2001 ?
The Bush administration did everything possible to inflame the situation. They claimed the US airmen were being tortured .. so the Chinese released footage showing them wandering freely about the officers quarters in which they were detained.
As I recall, the “corporate” wing of the Republican party eventually convinced Cheney & Rumsfeld to back down – for exactly the “it would be bad for business” reasons you mention.
But it ended ok … the Bush admin found 2 other wars to start !
I worked with an ex-air force guy in 2001, who told me at the time that those kinds of incedents happen a lot more often than we ever hear about … it’s just that up until then, the US and China dealt with the situation quietly and calmly. He could not understand why the Bush admin was making such a big deal out of what he saw as nothing unusual …
I guess we know now…
-me
A military confrontation with China? That’ll be interesting since they are 230,000,000 members strong.
I can’t wait to vote for this and have President Bush misuse my go-ahead.
To be Commander in Chief you have to have the courage NOT to wage war.
http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/07/gary_hart_lynne_cheney_and_war.php#more
Early in 2001, the [Hart-Rudman] commission presented a report to the incoming G.W. Bush administration warning that terrorism would be the nation’s greatest national security problem, and saying that unless the United States took proper protective measures a terrorist attack was likely within its borders. Neither the president nor the vice president nor any other senior official from the new administration took time to meet with the commission members or hear about their findings.
The commission had 14 members, split 7-7, Republican and Democrat, as is de rigeur for bodies of this type. Today [Gary] Hart told me that in the first few meetings, commission members would go around the room and volunteer their ideas about the nation’s greatest vulnerabilities, most urgent needs, and so on.
At the first meeting, one Republican woman on the commission said that the overwhelming threat was from China. Sooner or later the U.S. would end up in a military showdown with the Chinese Communists. There was no avoiding it, and we would only make ourselves weaker by waiting. No one else spoke up in support.
The same thing happened at the second meeting — discussion from other commissioners about terrorism, nuclear proliferation, anarchy of failed states, etc, and then this one woman warning about the looming Chinese menace. And the third meeting too. Perhaps more.
Finally, in frustration, this woman left the commission.
“Her name was Lynne Cheney,” Hart said.
The war on terror to get us into Iraq and Afghanistan was all about China to cut off their ability to secure oil resources before their military became too strong .
Also, the war on terror is getting old, the people are no longer buying it, so we need a new Cold War. Unlike the old one, we will have free trade with our future opponent.
At this point, we are probably more concerned with Russia and their alliance with China. Historically, we would try and split the two and play one off the other, as we did with Germany and the Soviets in WW II, and then take sides with one against the other, making sure both sides suffer maximal damage. The next war will likely be nuclear.
Don’t believe the myth we need Chinas money to fund our wars. This is a myth created so government can plead poverty to lower your living standards with taxes and denial of social spending on universal health care. Government can issue it’s own money without borrowing it, and we have the military might to support the dollar if we choose to do it, and it is needed by other countries to buy oil in any event. Those who spend all their energy just surviving are no threat to government and corporate tyranny, and those who profit from the looting of the middle class are no threat either, since the current system benefits them.
Mar 6, 2008 
