U.S., China Spar Over Missiles: Defense secretary Gates and top Chinese official trade barbs over competing regional defense systems, arms race in Asia.
This was the part of that article that concerned me most, G-man:
- "In recent weeks China and Russia issued a joint statement condemning U.S. missile defense plans. Washington has struggle to convince both countries that the missile interceptors are not a threat to them."
Skilled diplomacy would have further driven a wedge beween Russia and China.
I think we've treated Russia badly since the collapse of the Soviet Union, in expanding NATO nations right up to their border, depolying troops right on their border in Georgia, Armenia, Uzberkistan, and Afghanistan.
And telling them how to run their own business in Chechnya and Ukraine, as well as their own elections and internal security. I'm not saying we've been a threat to the Russians, but we have embarassed them politically, pissed them off, and made them suspicious of us.
China, on the other hand, we've had reason to distance ourselves from. While the U.S. has gone $9-plus trillion in debt, due largely to China's trade deficit with us, China has saved $2 trillion in assets, that they could use to make war with us. In addition to China's purchasing hundreds of billions in our treasury bills, that they could dump and badly hurt our economy with(although it would hurt theirs at least as much).
China is vastly expanding their military, particularly their navy, to expand their regional power in their local seas, and to have first claim in offshore oil drilling (they had a clash with the Phillipines a few years ago about offshore drilling, and if their navy were stronger then, they could have won that clash by force, or at least intimidation).
Another interesting thing I read recently is that for all the environmental whining that has prevented potential U.S. offshore drilling in the Caribbean and Atlantic, and could have given us greater oil independence. But when we don't dig offshore wells, the Cubans, Chinese and other nation do. And which (between the U.S. and these other nations) would build safer, more environmentally friendly offshore platforms in international waters off our coast?
Us or them, either way someone is going to dig in international waters. It might as well be us.
On the article you posted, G-man, I've never understood why the Russian (and now the Chinese) find a
defensive missile shild to intercept incoming missiles to be threatening. And conversely, how they call ICBM's that can bomb any city in the U.S. into a nuclear crater in 30 minutes, to be "defensive weapons". (ICBM missile technology the Chinese stole from us, by the way, during the Clinton years.)
But if we didn't agitate Russia and China on smaller issues, some of which I think are not our business, then I think we could have gotten more cooperation and trust regarding our defense shield.
