Off The Editor’s Desk – 5-26-2021
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China, maybe more than a financial threat
Last week I wrote about China and my feeling was that they were a threat to us financially, industrially and in the global market place. However, there are others who feel that China is also a military threat.
Have our presidents been so naive that they do not or will not see that China is a real threat to our country? In last week’s Sunday Pioneer Press, George Will, a columnist for the Washington Post made a point of the possible military harm by both the Chinese and the Russians. Will was talking about Senator Jack Reed, the Rhode Island Democrat who is the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, “Reed must plan for the increasing speed of change in military technologies, including cyber, and precise and maneuverable hypersonic (speeds more than Mach 5) weapons.”
“Reed must imagine configuring U.S. forces for this world. In 2011, there were 7 billion people and 7 billion devices connected to the Internet. Ten years later, he says, there are still 7 billion people but 40 billion connected devices. Imagine the U.S. vulnerability.”
“Writing in Foreign Affairs, Michele Flournoy, a former undersecretary of defense for policy, says Pentagon war games ‘reportedly show that current force plans would leave the military unable to deter and defeat Chinese aggression in the future.” She says, ‘U.S. war fighting concepts can no longer rely on attrition-based warfare’ because ‘U.S. forces are likely to be outnumbered and under persistent attack in any conflict.’ This is so, she writes, because China and Russia have developed cyber, electronic, and kinetic weapons designed to disrupt the ability of U.S. forces to deploy, navigate, communicate, and strike, as well as layer upon layer of defense to shoot down U.S. aircraft and sink U.S. ships before they can get within range of their targets.”
President Trump pinned down the Chinese leader on his visit here. But both Obama and Biden seem to think that China is just another world country trying to make its way.
Back in September of 2015, President Xi of the People’s Republic of China visited the Obama White House and both Presidents spoke after their meeting, with Obama saying. “That’s why I want to say again, the United States welcomes the rise of a China that is peaceful, stable, prosperous, and responsible player in global affairs.” But are they peaceful and responsible?
I don’t think that the Chinese are a very responsible player on the World Stage, and if they were, we would have found out about the virus much sooner. Do you think the release of the virus on the world’s population was just an accident? I wish I could believe that.
What is President Biden doing to level the field with our Military? If you look at his proposed budget for 2022 it shows spending for the Education Department up 41 percent. Health and Human Services is up 23 percent, while the military will get a 1.65 percent increase.
Don’t let your guard down, Mr. President.
Thanks for reading! ~Carlton