From: Bill Douglass (douglassbill@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Jun 11 2001 - 08:20:37 MDT
Mike Lorrey <mlorrey@datamann.com> wrote:
>
>Spike Jones wrote:
>
> > > On Tue, Apr 24, 2001 at 11:11:42PM -0700, Spike Jones wrote:
> > > > I predict that as soon as practical, all our weapons and
> > > > surveillance systems will be drones with their controllers
> > > > warm and safe at home. spike
> >
> > Anders Sandberg wrote:
> >
> > > This, combined with the development of non-lethal weapons on the
>surface
> > > looks as a very nice trend - war with no casualities. In practice I
> > > expect that it might have a dangerous effect....
> >
> > All good points, Anders. I hope your prediction is wrong however,
> > and we apes recognize the madness of it all before it develops
> > to its logical conclusion. {8-]
>
>Note: I just saw in a program on the Vietnam War that of all American
>wounded
>in action soldiers who received some form of medical care, 98% survived the
>war. The 58,000 deaths/MIAs through the 10 years of war there for the US
>equal
>less than a third to a tenth of the DAILY deaths in some battles of WWI.
>
>What concerns me most for the future is that the 'engagement' policy the US
>has pursued with the Peoples Republic of China has resulted not in an
>opening
>of Chinese society to freedom and western ideals of liberty, but instead
>has
>fanned flames of chinese nationalism far greater than ever hoped for by the
>Kuomintang. Nationalism is a disease of the mind that allows the victim to
>ignore all signs that one's nation may be somehow in error (I'm sure some
>are
>thinking about the irony of me saying this). Isolation and encirclement
>resulting in economic strangulation, like was pursued by the US with
>respect
>to the Soviet Union is required to give the Chinese mainlanders the smack
>upside the head that they might be living under a bad system. If you don't
>think we should do this, and if the US does not do this, I can guarantee
>you
>that the Chinese will do it to us by 2030, its part of their strategic
>planning today to assume a showdown militarily and econmically with the US.
Ah, and things have gone just swimmingly in Russia since the collapse of the
Soviet Union, haven't they? Soaring crime, unemployment, mortality rates,
drug and alcohol addiction, abortions, and dramatically declining birth
rates and a shrinking GDP. Why are people here in China so dense that they
can't see what a shining example modern-day Russia is for them? For that
matter, what's wrong with the numerous Russians living here in Beijing?
Don't they know what a comparatively awful place this is?
Seriously, modern China is *nothing* like the Soviet Union was. Just
because the government still calls itself "communist" doesn't mean it IS
communist. This is a very capitalist country, getting more so by the day,
with a *much* higher level of freedom (not to mention development and
prosperity*) than there was just twenty years ago. If you don't believe me,
you should come here sometime and see for yourself... I don't think anyone
who has actually spent time in modern China would have such a hostile
attitude toward the place and the people.
*Real incomes here have nearly quadrupled in the past twenty years,
reflecting economic progress which has never happened before on this scale,
anywhere. A great book on China, its economic development, and why things
have gone so much better here than in Russia, is "The Rise of China: How
Economic Reform is Creating a New Superpower" by William H. Overholt.
Highly recommended.
Bill
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