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2006-07-12 Home Front: WoT
Russia and China Reconsidered
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Posted by ryuge 2006-07-12 06:09|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 Yep, What he said!
Posted by DanNY 2006-07-12 06:34||   2006-07-12 06:34|| Front Page Top

#2 They're competitors desperately searching for some sort of international Sherman Anti-Trust Act and the means to enforce it. The UN and behind the scenes trading and bartering is the best they can come up with. The alternative [gasp] would be to offer a better service or product. Unfortunately, such an item is an anathema to their being.
Posted by Chereper Whush1804 2006-07-12 09:43||   2006-07-12 09:43|| Front Page Top

#3 Disagreement here.

What is this assumption that Russia and China will carry our water. Nations have permanent interests, not permanenet allies.

China is not the problem, North Korea is. China may not have much more leverage on Korea than we, It's just not as transparent. We could as easily quarantine NKor as China could cut off the trains. But if China destabilizes Norkland, the starving millions head to China for a meal. Why is it in their interest to destabilize Nork?

Likewise Russia doesn't have its act together. That's news? That doesn't make them an enemy, or even a player.

I can't believe Blankley ever took the "partner" BS to heart. He knows how long partnerships last.
Posted by Nimble Spemble 2006-07-12 09:54||   2006-07-12 09:54|| Front Page Top

#4 "Rusland bleibt Rusland" (Russia remains Russia) -- an old German saying.

No matter how much Russia might be tempered with its very new experiment with democracy, both it and China have a tremendous amount of historical baggage that will never free them from their unpleasant behavior.

This ingrained breeding goes right over the heads of the internationalist intellectuals, who believe that if they just have enough committee meetings and dedicated bureaucrats, then pigs shall soar aloft with the seagulls.

But the bottom line is that it just isn't natural.

Russia and China will retain their essential character, even if it destroys them, as it well might. But theirs has never been a way of partnership. It is unnatural to them. They might embrace it momentarily, but soon it becomes intolerable, and they revert to xenophobia and isolationism.

In its own way and right, the US is the same with asserting its prerogatives. But the US has the double advantage of not having an ancient history, nor having only a single ethnic or cultural background. Thus the US never fully partners, nor does it become fully isolationist any more.
Posted by Anonymoose 2006-07-12 09:55||   2006-07-12 09:55|| Front Page Top

#5 Russia can only look at envy towards Germany and Japan. They at least got to be reconstituted by the US after they lost their wars to it and they still have American occupation troops keeping the peace 60 years later. Russia's big mistake was not to ask to be occupied and reconstituted by the US in 1991.
Posted by Nimble Spemble 2006-07-12 09:59||   2006-07-12 09:59|| Front Page Top

#6 Their ego/history wouldn't allow it.
Posted by anonymous2u 2006-07-12 12:55||   2006-07-12 12:55|| Front Page Top

#7 "Why is it in their interest to destabilize Nork?"

The options on North Korea are limited. If anyone has the chance to change the governments in North Korea without destabalizing it China is the one. An invite to Kim to visit China, a word to a top general while he's out of town. Coup's happen.

The other option is the collapse of North Korea, the eventual reunification of Korea (with nukes) and a remilitarized Japan.

Given the two options China would be idiotic not to attempt a coup, work to unifying the Koreas on their terms so that it becomes a client state (the young in South Korea already buy the propoganda) or at least a neutral, non-nuclear, state.
Posted by rjschwarz 2006-07-12 15:38||   2006-07-12 15:38|| Front Page Top

#8 Assume the ChiComs and Russkies will oppose us diplomatically on every relevant issue.

Next?
Posted by Captain America 2006-07-12 17:33||   2006-07-12 17:33|| Front Page Top

#9 Russia is still still pissed-off about our interference in the Ukraine, Georgia, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria issues. Putin wants to put the Soviet Union back together so bad he can't stand it. So now we get a little payback for that. As for NKor, I don't believe there will be an attack from us. We will simply help our allies, Japan,Skor,India,Australia, and Taiwan build their armies with technology and cooperation. A backbreaking,nerve racking game of chess to be sure, but the only one that has a reasonable outlook. Utter annihilation of NKOR is not really something that would be charactaristic of us. Unless he starts throwing around WMD's, then all bets are off.
Posted by bigjim-ky 2006-07-12 20:37||   2006-07-12 20:37|| Front Page Top

23:52 DMFD
23:27 Seafarious
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22:53 Clinemble Cresing5775
22:52 Frank G
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22:41 Frank G
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22:39 Skidmark
22:36 DanNY
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