China as the new Japan

A lifetime ago, our country faced a threat from a newly militarized force in Japan.  We paid the price at Pearl Harbor, had a few defeats afterward, but won the war in four years. Along the way, we beat the Nazis with the help of Britain and Russia.  We also helped rebuild the nations we had vanquished and began "the American Century", as many historians have so dubbed it.


Today, we face a similar threat, but on a different level and on a different plane.  China (which we called Red China in my childhood) has bargaining chips, and a burgeoning military, that can bring the United States to its knees should it chose to do so.  As a Communist dictatorship, this nation enjoys the ability to not only embrace the profits of capitalism, but also to deny freedom to its citizens and to threaten the world's currencies by virtue of its huge and growing economy.  


As I write, the United States, while still having the strongest and best military forces on the planet, is in a crisis not seen in our history.  We are mired in record budgetary shortfalls, courtesy of economic and trade policies begun in the 1980s and accelerated from 2001 on.  We have not only spent our national treasure on needless tax cuts for the wealthiest among us, we have attempted to pay for two unneeded wars without asking any of our citizens to pay for them.  We have also enacted a prescription drug benefit which, like the aforementioned wars, was also "off budget" until the current Administration decided to tell the truth about what we're dealing with.


I will state that I support President Obama, with reservations.  As a former Republican, who gravitated away from that party with its movement to the corporate/evangelican/craziness, I'm a Democrat.  But I'm not so blind as to ignore the corruption that money has inflicted on both parties.  But that's another topic for another day.


China represents a national and economic security crisis that we cannot ignore.  As that nation owns so much of our debt, upon which we rely to operate government and supply needed help to Americans on a day to day basis in this day of 9 percent unemployment, we must rethink our tax and trade policies.  I intend to expand on this in future missives.  I welcome your feedback.

Wildcat