China threatens US with nuclear weapons

[misombra]

well considering the DEA suspects they only find five percent of the drugs being trafficked through the states and the border patrol only finds so many illegal immigrants i'm not all that surprised that they were able to get those things in. also the border from canada isn't nearly as tight as the one going through mexico.

[Chlorine]

Frasbee---Okay on the conditions you choose a sensible Secretary of Defence.

[whaywardj]

Everything about any government in any country is suspect at all levels, at all times. Locally, one has to be ever-vigilant for insider deals that enrich the few at the expense of the many. Globally, one has to remain ridiculously informed in order to understand who's lying to whom about what.

The Chinese could be just taking their cue from North Korea and merely rattling their sabers to affect diplomatic talks. Similarly, US media could be taking their cue from current administration and feeding the public propoganda (read: lies) to soften them up for more police tactics ostensibly aimed at terrorists, but having the disturbing side-effect of consolidating power in the hands of a few.

All in all, the higher up the international relations ladder you go, the more anarchistic things become and the more might makes right. Hence, Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) strategies (atom bombs) designed to keep extremist governments in check. A form of global terrorism. Significantly, this strategy is ineffective against regional terrorism.

Except for ONE time in history anyone knows about, every government has ALWAYS adopted the most modern means to inflict annihilation on its neighbors in pursuit of the MAD strategy. That exception was Japan at the close of its fuedal era. The Dutch (I believe) tried to introduce rifles to Japan. Initially, samurai warlords all declined the rifles in favor of the sword. They felt adopting rifles would upset the balance of power. This lasted only until the Dutch persuaded ONE samurai leader to adopt rifles. After that, Japan entered the modern era riding on the stock of a rifle and, later, gazing wonderingly down the bores of Admiral Perry's cannons.

Want a good indication of how far we've come as a civilization? Look at international relations. Like the jump cut in 2001: A Space Odyssey, where the ape throws a bone into the air and the story jumps to a space station orbiting the earth, not much has changed. It's all been just variations on the same theme.

With, maybe, one small difference. We're able now to get enough information, quickly enough, to perceive the recurring patterns more close to real-time.

What any of us care to DO with that information is something else again.

[artyemi]

I'm not sweating this. The article is just quoting one guy. He could just be some blow-hard with an attitude. I'll bet you I can find some General here in the US with just the opposite opinion.

China's power is in her economy. THAT'S what we have to watch out for. In large part the US national debt is financed by the Chinese. If they want to use that for leverage, they can become quite the 800 lb gorilla.

On the other hand, have you ever notived there seems to be a Chinese restaurant of every corner? I tell you, just one word from Peking and swarms of Special Forces Solders, who have been under cover for years as cooks will be in the streets, armed with woks and Duck Sauce. We will be overun within minutes.

haha.. fortunately, i think according to the US Census bureau estimate, there are only 13,956,612 asians alone or in combination in the US, out of 293,655,404 people. That works out to be almost 5 % of the population. And that's Asian, not even Chinese. So we're damn fortunate!