Sorry, Barack, this is the world. We'll still need the subs, Raptors and anti missile defense

It's not just China... 'China' is emblematic of one wing of our national challenges.

CIA Director warns China's military could get 'adversarial,' seems determined to 'flex its muscles'
China's rise is posing serious challenges and its military buildup and international behavior could produce an "adversarial" relationship with the world, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said last week.

China and India will affect strategic planning, he said. "Competition for influence will characterize the relationships between China, India, Japan and other emerging powers," Hayden said during a speech at Kansas State University

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Michael Hayden, said China was beefing up its military with "remarkable speed and scope," calling the buildup "troubling." AFP/Saul Loeb

"But China, a communist-led nuclear state that aspires to and will likely achieve great power status during this century, will be the focus of American attention in that region of the world."

Hayden said there are differing views about China's rise and its motivations. His view is that China is an economic competitor and increasingly becoming a "geopolitical" competitor.

"But China is not an inevitable enemy of the United States of America. There are good policy choices available to both Washington and Beijing that can keep us on the largely peaceful, constructive path that we've both been on now for about 40 years," he said.

China's military buildup is the most significant aspect of Beijing's growth, Hayden said, noting that the PLA has integrated the U.S. conflict lessons learned in both Persian Gulf wars. "They've developed an integrated advanced weaponry into a modern military force," he said.

The new Chinese military power could pose a risk to U.S. forces and interest in the region, and the military buildup is also about projecting the image of strength, he said.

"After two centuries of perceived Western hegemony, China seems to be determined to flex its muscles," Hayden said.

"It sees an advanced military force as an essential element of great power status, and it is the intelligence community's view that any Chinese government, even a democratic one, would have similar nationalist goals."

Nothing could more eloquently describe the macro outcome of human interactions. We can LAMENT this all we want, but we must acknowledge it's reality.

We can acknowledge our dismay that nuclear weapons have come into existence, but we must acknowledge that their existence has prevented a cataclysmic war so long as they have been around. We have traded our worry about the end of the world for it's near certain ravagement by chemical explosives in a conventional manner.

183 F-22 Raptrors is not enough to face the world's challenges. Nor is the size of the army we have, or the marines. With the exceptions of aircraft carriers, our navy is simply too small, and the ocean lift and air transport we will need is simply inadequate.

Well developed missile defenses, and the ONGOING RESEARCH to develop them further, not only harms NO ONE, but is a message to friends and adversaries that we intend to defend ourselves, AND we can find ways of doing so that harm NO HUMANS wherever we can.

Ongoing research in developing nuclear weapons can make it possible to remove the leadership cadre of nations whose desire is to destroy our way of life, and cannot be deterred from acting in such a manner, with MINIMAL damage to the nations they rule.

Limiting all this is the transfer of wealth from working Americans and their funding of our govt to the luxuriating pockets (at least these particular guys are trying to do SOMETHING other than pump, go to Monte Carlo, and incite killing crusaders and ....) of those who live on top dead reptiles, many of whom regard us as the decadent incarnation of evil. Of course if we DRILL, DRILL, DRILL, and GROW, GROW, GROW, we can ameliorate if not eliminate this entire process.

Electing a man who stands in opposition to every one of these points is a way to guarantee that each one these efforts will be required when the need is great and the hour is late.