Free Republic

Cheney warns on Chinese military rise by Olivier Knox 1 hour, 33 minutes ago US Vice President Dick Cheney has warned China Friday that its swift military build-up worried the world and said Washington was not blindly trusting North Korea to implement a landmark nuclear deal. On the first full day of an official visit, Cheney also used a speech to a group of prominent US and Australian citizens to assail unnamed critics who he said want the allies to "turn our backs" on places like Afghanistan or Iraq. But his visit, aimed at thanking staunch US ally Australia for...

Not often, perhaps every half-century or so, a political idea will punch through that forces people to sit and listen. Marxism achieved this at the beginning of the 20th century and stayed almost until the end, ultimately failing because it could not deliver. Nazism fared less well because the prizes it offered came only with war and at the most terrible cost to others. A similar epitaph will eventually be written for al-Qaeda. ADVERTISEMENT <A TARGET="_blank" HREF="http://ads.ft.com/event.ng/Type=click&FlightID=41153&AdID=57330&TargetID=20511&Segments=3099,6198,6235,9122,9179,10158,11059,11694,14316,15545,16157,18316,18489,18876,18952,18962,19119,19182,19313,19724,20188,20750,20936,21052&Targets=3099,7972,15407,6224,21129,21516,18699,20096,20511,20714,21432,21685,21841&Values=30,51,63,77,83,94,102,150,165,239,249,253,494,547,559,575,600,639,645,931,1583,3614,4431,4548,4570,4646,4704,5633,6192,6380,6391,6396,6617,7684,8072,8177,8179,8427,8454&RawValues=&Redirect=http://www.ft.com/screensaver"><IMG SRC="http://www.image.ft.com/adimages/banner/marketingscreensavermpu.gif" WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=250 BORDER=0></A> But while international political focus has been largely on Islamic fundamentalism and Iraq, an alternative economic and political system...