a chill wind blowing from the west

or, far east, depending on which coast you start from.
12-15 years ago, i started harping about china being a major threat to the future survival of this country. my way leftie bud tim accused me of making up boogie men because the russian bear was foundering, and i needed an enemy to focus on. no arguement would sway him.
well, today things are looking even scarier than they did 12 years ago. what have we got? china has one of the most robust economies in the world, growing at prodigious rates far exceeding our own. they have the largest standing army in the world. they have developed nuclear submarines, nuclear weapons, and have an animus towards taiwan that borders on the pathological. and now, they are boosting their military spending. the fact that they were able to exploit the pure greed and avarice of dirtbag american executives and get missle technology handed to them from raytheon, technology american taxpayers paid through the nose for, for weapons guidance systems, and the fact that they were able to get the plans for the W-88 multiple reentry nuclear weapon, the fact that chinese weapons of new manufacture were captured in iraq upon our incursion there... the list goes on and on.
and to try to make an economic arguement against the chinese having agressive plans is ludicrous. americans tend to think that everyone is just like them...very short attention span, and incredibly self-centered (i count myself amongst this group as well). the chinese have a very long history of being able to take the long view. i suppose i need to start brushing up on my mandarin and cantonese. i'll probably need it.