Posted on 03/06/2007 5:05:19 AM PST by IrishMike
...or can promote peace. Aside from more dirt and a "historical injustice" being supposedly remedied, what does China gain by annexing Taiwan?
The reason why I think that United States should stay in the sidelines is that it is hard for your Chinese nationalist to claim that the neo-imperialistic US is waging a proxy war against you when 1) you attacked Taiwan in the first place and 2) Taiwan is lobbing Taiwanese-made bombs back at you in self-defense. Mutually assured destruction is not a good way to "unite" a country.
It's a pity that Al Qaeda runs to Pakistan when our boys shoot at them. It would be better to drive them into China.
The flaws of a global economy.
"...or can promote peace. Aside from more dirt and a "historical injustice" being supposedly remedied, what does China gain by annexing Taiwan?"
A demonstration of it's power and influence, especially if the USA does not intervene.
"The flaws of a global economy."
And with every passing year those flaws will be getting closer to either being a slave-chain around the neck of America, or the nails in it's coffin.
We should give Formosa (Taiwan) some Nukes. Then we won't have to even have an alliance pack that we would defend them if China attacks.
I the last 30 years, I see 3 cases where going nuclear was absolutely necessary; Israel, India, Taiwan... and, maybe South Korea.
But protectionism is no answer either.
It would be an even greater demonstration of their power and influence if the US was to intervene and then basically capitulate to avoid a full scale war with China. I think Taiwan is not as helpless as they might seem to people who just compare the size of Taiwan to that of the PRC. If they don't match China 's efforts to build up its offensive capabilities, they will be in trouble soon. We can and should help them, but we shouldn't tell them what to do.
"It would be an even greater demonstration of their power and influence if the US was to intervene and then basically capitulate to avoid a full scale war with China."
True, that would even be a worse scenario, to engage and then retreat.
"I think Taiwan is not as helpless as they might seem to people who just compare the size of Taiwan to that of the PRC."
It would be even better if, instead of Knox-class destroyers which will be quickly taken out in a conflict, they had concentrated completely on late-model diesel-electric subs. Combined with a full load of the latest American anti-shipping mines they could bring seaborne trade with China to a devastating halt if war were to start.
"If they don't match China 's efforts to build up its offensive capabilities, they will be in trouble soon."
True, but the only effective offensive capabilites I can see that would stop China would be nukes. Barring full-scale assistance by the USA. This all depends on how far into the future such a conflict occurs. As long as we continue the free-trade policies that we have, our chances of intervening slowly but steadily decrease.
"But protectionism is no answer either."
Carefully done, yes it is. Unfortunately it will have to be phased in slowly. Otherwise it's like deciding you want to go from southbound on the freeway to northbound, and trying to accomplish it by switching into reverse. You end up in a tangled wreck.
"I don't see protectionists policies helping matters."
Then you need re-learn US history. When you are unnecessarily dependent upon another nation for something, they have power over you. Did you know that, due to free trade policies, China has completely cornered the market on rare-earth magnets? A vital component for modern satellites, navigation systems, and Precision-Guided Munitions (PGM)? So literally our refusal to be protectionist has given a potential enemy the means to crash our ability to produce PGMs and other modern combat systems. It's also making a lot of our manufacturing dependent upon foreign parts sources. To the point that we'll be nothing but a nation of final-assembly plants.
The bes system should probably comply elements of the two. Shutting ourselves of to the world is lunacy, but so is outsourcing our defense technologies becaues it's cheaper.
"Shutting ourselves of to the world is lunacy,..."
It's more like impossible, but a lot of the unnecessary dependencies can be reduced if not eliminated over time. There's raw materials that are just not available in the USA, and we have to import them. But any industry that is war-convertable needs to stay in (or return to) the USA.
Absolutely. There's not reason to sell rope to our enemies.
"Did you know that you can make apple pie from ritz crackers and lemon juice?"
Yes, I've heard of that. Can you make rare-earth magnets from them too?
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