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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alighieri who wrote (150491)	8/27/2002 3:48:37 PM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1584974

What do we do if that should happen ? Under your idea of foreign policy (if we're not directly threatened, we're not involved) the answer is easy: NOTHING.

To: Alighieri who wrote (150491)	8/27/2002 5:56:30 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1584974

Do you suppose that we could end up with a large army in Iraq and the Chinese take advantage of that to invade Taiwan? Al, defending Taiwan would be almost entirely a naval and air operation. Also the Chinese don't have the amphibious capability yet, Taiwan could likely fight off an invasion without our help. What China could do is bomb Taiwan and lob missiles at it. They could mess Taiwan up a lot easier then they could actually invade. Unfortunately we don't have good missile defenses yet. Tim

To: Alighieri who wrote (150491)	8/27/2002 7:21:18 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1584974

Ted, another wild notion... The Chinese have been failry quiet about our rantings against Iraq. I have a theory that the Chinese are waiting for us to become embroiled further in the Middle East to take a more aggressive stance towards Taiwan. Do you suppose that we could end up with a large army in Iraq and the Chinese take advantage of that to invade Taiwan? What do we do if that should happen ? Al, what's another war among friends? We have plenty of armaments and we got real good at floating budget deficits under the last Rep. administration. The problem with hawks is the way they think. First, they figure if they get rid of Sodom, all our problems will be solved. That's how they sell the war to the rest of us. Plus, they figure the other bad jerkoffs will see how strong and powerful we are and how we crushed the enemy, and they will be afraid to do squat. But what they don't count on is the maturity factor re two penny dictators and their constant battle with paranoia. So what happens is that the power lesson is good for maybe 3 years. By the end of three years, their paranoia has reared its ugly head or they are feeling antsy, and either they go after someone in their own country or they attack a neighboring country. These little wars help them forget how badly they are screwing up their nation's economy and even better, it makes them feel important. Uh hunh.....yup, yup, yup! In the meantime, the hawks in this country who struggle with their own paranoia are convinced we need enough armament with precision capability to blow up the entire planet at least three times......even if it means going into more debt 'cause you never know when those dirty little commies.....oh wait, they're not around anymore....nevermind; you never know when those dirty little sodomites are going to get in a boat and come after us. So they make sure more and more of our budget goes to defense, and our defense industry, where many of these hawks work, reaps the benefits. Occasionally, we get a president who sees through all the hype and paranoia, and scales back the US defense budget. But eventually, his term is up and we get another paranoid president who wants to build more and more armaments. Of course, the hawks never stop to think if we spent maybe 1/4 of that defense money in ways that would encourage countries to be democratic rather than ruled by a despot, we might be able to cut down on the wars. I mean, look at all the influence we have and the ways we could leverage that influence. But nooooooo, we fall back on the time worn concept of beating the bullies up and bombing the sh*t out of the country. We spend a little time helping them fix up but really, after the bombing is over, its their problem, not ours, and its "hasta luego, amigo"!! ted