The semantics of Rumsfeld and the blatherings of Rice leading the U.S. and our military allies into an economic and military chess game with China can only get worse. The true question, and forgive me if this is a repeat of any previous letter, is why would China attack the U.S.? They don't need to. By the time Bush is done drilling America into the ground and the minimum recruitment age is raised to 59, we'll be so demoralized and anti-government China won't have to lift a finger—we won't have anyone left in the military willing to follow orders. Besides, they already process all of our steel; we'll go into debt buying their steel to make our tanks and ships, and won't have any money left over to fuel the things because China will own the oil companies we had to lease to support our steel costs.

>The true question, and forgive me if this is a repeat of any previous letter, is why would China attack the U.S.?

I don't think you're repeating a previous letter. I actually don't believe that they would, but I do believe that they may well attack an East Asian ally of ours. They have gone to war with India in recent decades, and India is becoming a close ally of ours. They will probably at least bully Japan, which is still defenseless without our support, though we may be allowing them to expand their army again soon. And finally, I firmly believe that Taiwan is in danger. We have pledged to defend Taiwan in case of such an attack.

Whether we _should_ be engaged in the region, or whether it would be better for us to disengage entirely and leave China free rein to control all the resources from the area, and bully whomever they please, is an open question. The isolationist sentiment is not necessarily a foolish one. But if Taiwan is attacked, and we renege on our promise to defend it, then for many decades to come, our name will be spat upon by them. And I don't want to think about a Japan that's left defenseless, with 100,000-man army, before a nuclear China, with a million-plus-man army, several hundred nuclear missiles, a submarine fleet, and a public that has very violent anti-Japanese sentiments.

I do agree that we have exhausted our armed forces in Iraq, and will continue to do so, while the Chinese armed forces remain fresh for whatever conflict may be coming.