Years ago, during the runup to the first Iraq War, I remember the media and pronouncements by politicians all disclaiming the horrors of Saddam Hussein. He was evil. He was a monster. He was a dictator. He would make Adolph Hitler look like a boy scout. The news was a steady cacophony of jibes and sound bites continuously portraying the iniquitous and ungodly elements of Hussein’s rule.
I described it at the time as a drumbeat sounding the buildup to a war. As weeks went by, it got louder and louder. Politicians on both sides of the aisle joined in the chorus. “Saddam was bad. We must do something about him.” Naysayers were not heard from. Shortly before it reached its crescendo, priests, ministers, and pastors from all the various religions of our great nation flocked to the Rose Garden to hold hands with President George H. W. Bush and pray. I was reminded of the famous “War Prayer” by Mark Twain (1904). An excerpt follows:
“O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle — be Thou near them! With them — in spirit — we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it — for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.”
I could hear the clergy of the land saying these words in their hearts while they prayed for victory for our side. George the First got his coalition together to sanctify his effort to invade Iraq. George the Second was not so lucky. The rest of the world did not see any reason to invade Iraq again. Not deterred one bit, George the Second started his war in March of 2003 after he DISCOVERED “Weapons of Mass Destruction” being stockpiled by the Ogre Saddam. We could not let the Evil Saddam stockpile such dangerous weapons. Supporters of the war searched for these weapons. Strangely, none were ever found. No doubt they have given up looking for them.
For some time now, I have been hearing the drumbeats for a new war. The “Coming War with China.” No surprise that we have been in an economic war with them for the past ten years. The latest news on the economic battlefield is that China will take over the E-Car industry if we do not somehow stop them. See the following article: “US can’t yet compete with China on EVs, Ford chairman tells CNN.” Our former President Trump had this to say about the Chinese:
“China’s pattern of misconduct is well known. For decades, they have ripped off the United States like no one has ever done before. Hundreds of billions of dollars a year were lost dealing with China, especially over the years during the prior administration. China raided our factories, offshored our jobs, gutted our industries, stole our intellectual property, and violated their commitments under the World Trade Organization. To make matters worse, they are considered a developing nation getting all sorts of benefits that others, including the United States, are not entitled to.” — Rose Garden, May 29, 2020
Comments such as Trumps are strange. Since why do we buy so much from the Chinese, take loans from the Chinese, and even eat so much Chinese food when they are “ripping” us off? My hat that says “USAF Veteran” is even made in China. Curious I found the following data that depicts some of our trade with the Chinese:
| US Main Export Commodities to China, 2022 | ||
| Chemicals | US$25.7 billion | 22.4 percent |
| Oil and gas | US$11 billion | -12.1 percent |
| Food and kindred products | US$3.8 billion | 10.9 percent |
| Minerals and ores | US$2.3 billion | -40.3 percent |
“Let’s be clear: the US and China are not in a new Cold War. For some time, China hawks in the Trump and Biden administrations, along with members of Congress, have been pushing for the US economy to “decouple” from China, especially on tech. They have failed in many sectors. Despite political pressure in Washington, an ongoing trade war, and both countries preoccupied with domestic crises, the reality is that over the past two years the world’s two largest economies have become more integrated — especially on global supply chains. We take a look at US-China annual trade levels since 2015.” — The Graphic Truth: Is the US-China trade war over? — January 03, 2022, Carlos Santamaria and Ari Winkleman
After seeing the amount of trade that we are doing with China, I am even more curious. Why are we doing so much trade with someone who is “ripping us off?” Would you go to a store where they ripped you off? Would you buy something from someone who was going to rip you off? This is very peculiar. Do you think the Chinese might feel that we are “ripping them off?” Curiouser and curiouser as Alice said in Wonderland.
I had always thought Capitalism was a friend of “Free Enterprise” and “Competition.” But when it comes to the Chinese, it seems we regard anything they do as antagonistic to Free Enterprise. We blame them for our economic problems more than we praise them for elevating the standard of living for their billion plus people. A feat that has never in history been accomplished in so short a time and with such positive results.
However, lest I sound too Pro-Chinese, I will bring up their “atrocious” human rights violations. They are notorious for violating the rights of many indigenous Chinese minorities. Kind of like how we have violated the rights of Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and women since before the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776. In fact, even after we signed this declaration which said that “All men are created equal,” we have continued to perpetuate human rights violations. The Founding Fathers should have been more honest and said: “All wealthy and landed and titled White men are created equal. Minorities and women are not equal and are available for exploitation as needed by rich White men.”
So maybe we should not be too hard on the Chinese. But “wait” you will say, didn’t they send a spy balloon over our country. Like a giant piñata it floated across our vast continent taking pictures of “who knows what.” I think it would be easier to get pictures of the USA off Google Images but maybe they like doing things the hard way. We shot the balloon down and I am still waiting to see the results from the FBI investigation into the stuff that was in this balloon. I would like to see some of the pictures they took. Any information about this seems to have mysteriously disappeared from the media. Can you believe that they are spying on us? We certainly would not be spying on them, would we? One source which I should not divulge but I will anyway had the following to say about our efforts:
“In fact, spying on the People’s Republic of China has been one of the National Security Agency’s top priorities since it was established in 1952.” — Robert Windrem
If I am correct and many other pundits would agree that we are winding up towards a physical war with China, than we need to do something to avert this potential catastrophe. Of course you will say that is why we have our State Department and our diplomatic corp. Their job is to help talk us out of a potential confrontation. They are there to use tact and diplomacy to avert a military confrontation. Perhaps this is why Blinken cancelled his previous visit to China after the balloon issue. “I’ll show those Chinese what it means to send a balloon over our country. I will not talk to them for another six months or so.” This “Declaration of Non-Talking” comes on the heels of the following non-talking hiatus. Again, I was surprised to find that Blinken’s current visit to China was the first by a top US diplomat to China in almost five years. I guess we showed them how we deal with people who are ripping us off. We don’t talk to them.
“US Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized the need for diplomacy and keeping “open channels of communication.” Maybe this guy should practice what he preaches?
The second largest economy in the world. A country with whom we are having a “war of words.” A country where anyone with open ears can hear the mounting drumbeat of war. The solution to our problems with China? We cancel meetings with them over a balloon and we don’t talk to them for over five years. Instead, we publish books with titles like:
- The Coming War with China: A Semi-Fictional Future
- America’s Coming War with China: A Collision Course over Taiwan
- The Coming War on China
- The Decisive Decade: American Grand Strategy for Triumph Over China
- Coming China Wars, Where They Will Be Fought and How They Can Be Won
- Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China
These are only a few of the books describing when, where, and how a war with China will be fought. Type in “War with China” in Google in parentheses and you will get almost 3 million hits. I found the current videos available if you don’t like to read:
Videos
“They Want To Kill Us!” – Are We Close To a War With China?
US prepares for possible war with China | Latest English …
Will the US and China go to war over Taiwan? | Al Jazeera …
So, who is the bad guy? The truth is we don’t need a bad guy. We need to stop expecting everyone to meet our requirements for the way that they run their economy and government. We have a country that has been looked up to and admired the world over for its freedom of thought and action. Times have changed and we are losing this image and personae. We have become a stumbling block to development for many other nations in the world. The reason is simple. We have failed to learn to coexist with countries that want to do things differently than we do. We have used our power and wealth to put our country first and to look for win-lose scenarios rather than win-win. Many countries still admire us, but as is evident with the recent move to drop the dollar as the global standard, many countries see us as a global bully. Study the major empires in history and they all started their decline and eventual downfall when they became global bullies.
Over the years, I have noticed that I have about as many people each week who view my “Who is Dr. John Persico Jr?” profile as read my blog. I suppose it is only natural that people would want to know something about me before believing anything I say. If only everyone did the same thing with the politicians that they vote for. But that is another issue.
Time Capsules! I want to open a time capsule. When I was a small boy, I was truly fascinated by the whole idea of a time capsule. It seemed so Buck Rogers like. You take parts of present civilization, put them in a non-destructible container, bury it in the ground and then 1000 years later, you open it up. The commonplace of the past are not the treasures of the future. I did not believe anything could be more interesting.
Aging Capriciously 