Re: the bottom line is to protect '''our Standard of living, our way of life''' if it is threatened from the East 'as it is'
I'm afraid that's but a cheap rationalization of yours... Of course, it comfortably fits your prejudice that the US, the West, the Anglo-Saxons, etc. fight only for RATIONAL motives... Would Judeo-Protestant nuts pick a fight out of some religious lunacy? Would they start a war because of some Biblical nonsense? Do they listen to Jesus quacks like Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell? LOL... No, no, NO!! Gringos are a RATIONAL bunch!! Although there are currently about 300,000 churches, synagogues, mosques and other cult joints in the US, it all boils down to the "bottom line" --money reigns supreme in America! In Mammon we trust! Gold bless America!
You talk about "protecting your way of life" but... WHOSE way of life???? There are already millions of Yanks who slum it in a trailer park or in a ghetto shack... You've got the highest number of inmates to total population ratio in the world.
But then, you probably intimate that the US occupation of Iraq is all about OIL, eh? But that's BULLSHIT: I've posted dozens of messages debunking the "War-for-oil" hoax(*)
The only way for the US to keep its #1 status would be to apply the Morgenthau policy to China... Remember: Morgenthau was that Jewish technocrat of the 1950s who advised Prez Truman to turn Germany into a "pastoral economy" to prevent her from ever becoming an industrial juggernaut again. Eventually, Truman overruled Morgenthau and chose to implement the Marshall Plan instead....
So, my point is that, insofar as the US can't deviate China from her double-digit annual GDP growth, Americans will have to adjust to the new (global) division of labor... It's pointless for the US to roam the earth, looking to control... what? Mideat oil? African ores? Latin American commodities? Are you stupid? Do you fancy the US can CONTROL the world's natural resources by fencing them off and posting GIs around to guard them? ROFL!!!!
Let me clue you in: the US did hold sway over commodities and oil for the past 50 years because it NEEDED them, because the US economy couldn't get enough of the Middle East oil, African ores, South American crops, etc. and because you could AFFORD them, you could PAY for them --hence the dollar's hegemony.
Times, however, have changed: the US economy is only growing at 4-5% annually --half China's growth... As for your domestic demand, the US population is rising at a 2.2% birthrate --just enough to keep it constant. Compare that to Asia/China's billions....
Of course, another way for the US to keep its leadership would be "colonialism", that is, the coercive, predatory plundering of Asian economies... But then again, we no longer live in the XVIIth century --gunboat diplomacy won't do the trick because China too has "gunboats". You'll have to share the pie with Asia, like it or not.
Gus
(*) Message 20438556
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