“...And it reads America’s helter-skelter departure from Afghanistan as a sign of imperial senescence.
I doubt that Secretary Pompeo had any plans to incubate Uighur terrorists as a weapon against the Chinese regime; the ETIM affair probably constituted no more than a Parthian shot at Beijing by an official of a lame-duck administration with future political ambitions.
But that is not how Beijing read the matter. Chinese analysts read the Defense Intelligence Agency’s 2012 report warning that American support for Sunni jihadists would foster the new Caliphate movement that turned into ISIS.
As noted, they tracked jihadists from General Petraeus’ “Sunni Awakening” into their own counter-terror sphere. They watched Pompeo arrange for the release of 5,000 Taliban militants as part of the peace negotiations that preceded the Biden rout.
With its richly financed Belt and Road Initiative, China had already seized the diplomatic high ground in Central Asia – likely to the discomfort of Russia, formerly the dominant power among the former republics of the defunct Soviet Union.
Now Russia and China will set aside their differences and the dragon and bear will bestride Eurasia like twin colossi. That is the alliance that Richard Nixon set out to prevent in 1972, and it is now hard upon us. ...”
“Now Russia and China will set aside their differences and the dragon and bear will bestride Eurasia like twin colossi. “
I’m sure it will be every bit as effective as the WWII Axis.
Well said. Hopefully free people will take a stand against Russia/China and their puppet Biden.