Posted on 11/18/2007 5:26:41 AM PST by nuconvert
Deepening China-Iran Ties Weaken Bid to Isolate Iran
November 18, 2007
Washington Post
Robin Wright
The rapidly growing relationship between Iran and China has begun to undermine international efforts to ensure that Iran cannot convert a peaceful energy program to develop a nuclear arsenal, U.S. and European officials say.
The Bush administration and its allies said last week that they plan to seek new U.N. sanctions against Iran, after the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iranian officials had given inadequate answers to questions about the country's past nuclear activities. But U.S. and European officials now worry more about a Chinese veto than about opposition from Russia, which has previously assisted and defended the Iranian nuclear energy program.
U.S. and European officials charged Friday that Beijing is deliberately stalling to protect its economic interests.
"China needs to play a more responsible role on Iran, needs to recognize that China is going to be very dependent in the decades ahead on Middle East oil, and, therefore, China, for its own development and its own purposes, is going to need a stable Middle East, and that an Iran armed with nuclear weapons is not a prescription for stability in the Middle East," national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley told reporters Friday.
China now gets at least 14 percent of its imported oil from Iran, making it China's largest supplier and the source of as much as $7 billion worth of oil this year, according to David Kirsch, a manager at PFC Energy. Tehran in turn gets major arms systems from Beijing, including ballistic and cruise missiles and technical assistance for Tehran's indigenous missile program. Dozens of Chinese companies are also engaged in several other industries.
On the eve of Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi's visit to Tehran last week
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
China would LOVE to see Israel and Us - US hit. They would reap the spoils of a conversion from a superpower founded in Liberty to a nation reeling with a paranoid Monster as President. They could then spread the “wonder of Mao” to the rest of the free nations and re-order human existence from a celebration of individual prosperity to a state of collective misery.
“China would LOVE to see Israel and Us - US hit.”
Nothing to see here.....let the Olympic games go on
In fact, the decadent West is ironically reminiscent of 18th and 19th century China, so encumbered by decadence that it was unable of prevent small European nations from picking its bones, forcing it to accept European laws, carving off chunks of China--e.g. Hong King, Macau, etc.--to use as they pleased.
If anyone understands the cycles of ascendancy and decadence, it's the Chinese.
And the Muslim world, only a short time ago, was similarly taken over and divided up by European nations, who, today, lack the will even to survive!
So decadent are Europeans that they cannot prevent Arabs and their agents from moving in and taking over the entire continent.
Russia's dwindling population is hoping against hope that the Chinese and the Muslims won't divide Russia between themselves like Hitler and Stalin divided Poland.
Right now the Chinese, the Iranians, and the Arabs are doubled over with laughter! Slapping their knees! Falling all over each other! Quoting Charles Krauthammer in Mandarin and Arabic! (See tagline.)
Listen, your general point is well taken, that empires rise and fall, but try not to hyperventilate!
Arabs are not necessarily the problem. Muslims certainly are, but not all arabs or persians are muslims. And no, not even the muslims are capable of 'taking over' Europe. Maybe in 30-50 years, but certainly not now.
Right now the Chinese, the Iranians, and the Arabs are doubled over with laughter! Slapping their knees! Falling all over each other!
If you've been to China, you'd know that the chinese people are choking on gas lines...oh, what? You don't hear about that in your armchair from the MSM via Chinese news agencies? Really? Go figure!
The Iranian peeps are in a surprisingly similar gas crunch as they import so much refined product. And obviously, you can imagine have a nutjob like Ahmjob in your oppressive govt...I don't think the Iranian people, at large, are 'knee slapping.'
And finally, tell me something that the arab world has to knee-slap over? Saudi princes and egyptian presidents are shivering in their boots, from the Iranian threat to the ever present mighty-mouse of israel, or a bad outcome of the India/Paki problem, or any number of fractious squabbles over there. One false move and they all go down hard.
If the USA falls, whether from within or by China/Iran/Hamas/Alqaeda/etc...and the entire world is in a 'world of hurt.'
Meanwhile, there's no Machiavellian plot, or worldwide state-sponsored conspiracy to bring us down. A bunch of middling players aiming at the top dog, as always, sure. But there's no Napoleon or Hitler out there right now.
I agree with you that the USA is under threat....more from Hillary internally now than EVER from Stalin or Kruschev, though. Likewise, Hillary is a bigger threat to the entire world's freedom and liberty than anything UBL could imagine....and she's got approx 40% of the American electorate locked up from the git-go without any help whatsoever from arabs or muslims.
I haven't been to China. So that's part of my problem. Or to Iran--another part.
I have been to the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Asia, though--especially Europe--and that's a big part of my problem.
And the biggest part of my problem is something you zeroed right in on: I've been letting the Propaganda Machine--a.k.a. the Mainstream Newsmedia--influence my thinking--in spite of knowing better! Frailty, thy name is man!
You're right again that I can imagine having a nutjob like Ahmadinejab running an oppressive government. In fact--I can imagine something like that right here in the U.S.A. (I'm beginning to hyperventilate again.) when I think of that 40% of Americans you mentioned.
And you hit a bullseye yet again when you observed that the U.S. is invulnerable to foreign enemies but vulnerable to domestic ones.
Were it not for America's enemies within, her foreign enemies would have been dispatched long ago.
Thanks again for a wise rejoinder. ~S
Spot on, FRiend!
OTOH...look at WHY, or at least what was going on preceding when those other empires fell from their zenith.
They were largely unopposed externally and internally and became complacent. If we were to win out, and the leftys were completely eradicated, then the decay of the Republican Party would soon also be complete...because nothing would balance it.
Conservatives can only see what they want not to be.
Meanwhile, we're lucky in our enemies. That the rest of the world is in near chaos is the only GOOD thing we've got going for us!
I guess my point is, the world's a mess, the USA is a mess, and yet....I'd rather be no place else!
Yeah. Me too! In fact millions are flocking to the U.S. as we speak. We're trying to build a wall to keep 'em out!
I certainly agree with you as to why past empires fell, but I don't agree that, if the Lefties were suddenly removed, the Republican Party would decay into insignificance. If that happened, the Lefties in the Republican Party would also be removed, and the Leftist influence on the rest would disappear. Another political party would almost certainly arise to balance the newly restored Republican Party, and America would thrive. This would be a godsend. Wise, sensable, benevolent people would once again be in complete control of the U.S.A., Western decadence would be gone, and the entire world would be blessed with the result.
We are lucky that the rest of the world is in near chaos. If we're really lucky--and we might be--the U.S. and her allies will remain healthy, ascendant, and under the control of wise, sensable, benevolent people--i.e. that the American Dream will prevail.
I think it is modernity that has thrown the world into chaos--especially the Information Age and easy transportation and communication. This has effectively shrunk the world to the extent that, in effect, everyone everywhere is in close proximity to everyone else everywhere else.
It is impossible to stop the flow of information and the exchange of ideas. It is also impossible to stop the migration of people.
Most of the people of the world do not understand what made the U.S. the greatest, richest, and most powerful nation the world has ever known--viz. liberty, capitalism, and the principles of the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Gettysburg Address.
They also do not understand why Marxism, big government, the welfare state, and the decadence of the Western Left are dangerous and counterproductive--viz. Marxism requires an oppressive, totalitarian government for its implementation and maintanence and destroys the incentive to production and prosperity; government is a necessary evil, and the bigger the government, the greater the evil; the welfare state destroys self-reliance and individual incentive; and Western decadence is the same as the decadence that has always destroyed civilizations and empires.
Furthermore, most of the people of the world have little stake in the survival of the West, and, even if they understand what made America and Western Civilization great, they have no reason to want to perpetuate this greatness rather than assume it for themselves. What they fail to understand is that the easiest and surest means of getting it for themselves is the triumph of the U.S.A. and the spread of its influence throughout the world--i.e. the triumph of the American Dream.
I appreciate your ideas and ability to communicate them clearly.
There is no substitute for, and no improvement on, clarity and the free exchange of ideas--something of which the Left, trapped in the quagmire of its own decadence, has lost sight.
Do not buy Made in China.
Since I moved, I have been replacing stuff that I sold and buying stuff that I need. I have gone ahead and paid more for a lot of items because it did not have Made in China on it. It is hard, because a lot of crap is made there. Like, the rings for my shower curtain. Everyone I looked at was made in China. I could have shopped harder for them, but I wanted to shower or should I say, I needed to shower :-)
yea I have been looking at labels alot lately. Everything is hard to find that isn’t made in china
And you know, you got to the store and buy a desk. IT comes in a box and you take it home and build it. I should just go build my own.
I wish I knew an Amish person. I want to build my desk with the quality they put in a barn.
BUMP
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