This subject is far too complex for someone like me to sort out in great detail, but as we approach really severe economic, resource and climate problems, I worry about how we can deal with it all. If the Chinese, who we depend on for so many things, have not only the ability to pull the economic rug out from under the U.S., but also develop the capability to neuter our sea/air based conventional military, what might happen in the future? What will the real fear-mongers - the American right wing and their noise machine - do when faced with a threat to our military supremacy and the thing they call American exceptionalism?
More below the fold...
Most of you have seen the news this week (the following quote is from "AsianWeek.com):
It seems like a page out of a Tom Clancy military thriller novel. The U.S. dispatches the super carrier George Washington to discourage a Chinese attack against Taiwan or a North Korean strike. But the Chinese responds with three salvos of the exotic new DF 21D ballistic anti-ship missile. It looks like an old submarine launched ballistic missile that’s been around for 20 years. But instead of a nuclear warhead aimed at a fixed point in the ground, China now has Jianbing-6 and YaoGan-2 satellites with real time imaging and radar to track the location of a giant carrier task force 2000 miles away. The warhead has its own cameras or sensors to see which target is the carrier and steer to it at ten times the speed of sound.
The first just pierces the armored hull, but it starts fires and shuts down flight operations. The second hit knocks out its nuclear propulsion system, by which time there are air attacks by Chinese bombers with still more missiles. The third and final wave sends the multi-billion dollar George Washington to the bottom of the ocean. That scenario, carried by a Popular Science article first appeared in a pseudonymous article posted on Xinhuanet, website of China’s official news agency.
I served in the U.S. Navy from 1962 through 1966, as stationed stateside at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Oakland California. No relevant experience there except to expperience military "culture." Later, from 1978 to 1981, I worked as a "sales engineer" in southern California's with a territory that included many military, aerospace and other hi-tech companies. I learned a lot about the military-industrial complex during those years - I was part of it. At the time, companies like the New Hampshire firm I represented made extremely high-quality components for aircraft, missiles, computers and other products. Military components - such as the super-precision bearings my company made - were required to be made in the U.S., although we did source materials and sub-components from European allies.
Over the years, I drifted further to the left and left my military-industrial complex years behind - jolted at first by my awareness of the realities of Ronald Reagan and his administration. Along with off-shoring and globalization, the U.S. allowed these critical components to be made overseas, and now, I understand that China makes critical electronics and other parts for our military ships, vehicles and weapons. Some say that we don't even have the capability to make some critical components here anymore.
Obviously, The Chinese have reverse-engineered anything high tech and/or military that they could get their hands on, although some American high-tech critics ridicule their ability to do high-tech well. But...they're launching satellites now and seem to be getting better at technology, and stronger militarily as time goes on. They're locking up energy and mineral resources around the globe, and if they have the capability to knock out our carriers, we are left with only one thing - our nuclear weapons.
I remember how rationality and reason instantly went out the window in 1973 during the oil crises. Am I being too paranoid if this new threat to the American collective ego and military supremacy worries me??