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Hi archy. He's in trouble. Speaking of China. Has this stopped?

Naw. Runs in the family, I guess.

Good point. Bush and Clinton are very similar if not identical when it comes to foreign policy.

I doubt that we would be going to war with Iraq if Clinton were president but we would have done a better job in Afghanistan with Clinton because Republicans would have insisted.

Republicans didn't insist because a Republican was in the white house. Democrats wouldn't insist to begin with.

It's a wash. We need another Reagan that will do the right thing instead of what is politically correct or just politically expedient.

Thanks for that lead article--it's a nice little summary for those who haven't been paying attention.

Since you guys brought up China, it looks like their little success with the EP3 has emboldened them. Apparently they've been harrassing our Navy.

China enacts law extending its control
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/830370/posts

Excerpts:

China has enacted a new decree extending its control over a 200-mile economic zone from its coast that Bush administration officials say could lead to another clash with the United States over freedom of navigation. "This is a Chinese domestic law that is inconsistent with international law and the law that we follow," said a defense official. (Snip)
The law, announced in December by Beijing, states that any survey and mapping activities cannot involve state secrets or harm state security, a change from a 1995 decree that granted all nations "freedom of navigation in and flight" over its exclusive economic zone as long as they comply with international law and Chinese law.
The amended law also says Chinese civil and military authorities must approve all survey and mapping activity in Chinese-controlled waters and requires that any "foreign entities" wishing to do such work in that zone must be part of a joint venture with a Chinese company.
The law states that any unapproved ocean-survey activity will be subject to sanctions, including fines, and confiscation of equipment and data.
The Chinese decree also warns there will be "additional unspecified penalties" if the confiscated data are determined to involve state secrets. (Snip)
Control to 200 miles out would give Beijing power over vital strategic waterways throughout the Asia-Pacific region, something the U.S. military opposes as a threat to free navigation.
China's long-term goal, defense officials claim, is to beef up naval and air forces to project power east from its 10,000 miles of coastline to cover two chains of islands. One chain stretches south from Japan — the Ryukyu Islands — through Taiwan and all the way to Indonesia and Singapore. The outermost island chain embraces a huge swath of the Pacific Ocean that includes Japan's other islands, areas beyond the Mariana Islands and a line extending southward hundreds of miles east of the Philippines.(Snip)
The announcement of the new Chinese law follows the harassment of the Navy's ocean-survey ship USS Bowditch by Chinese military patrol aircraft and ships in September.
The Bowditch was traveling in international waters off the coast of northern China in the Yellow Sea. Shortly after its arrival in the area Sept. 7, Chinese Y-8 and Y-12 aircraft flew within 500 feet of the ship and warships made threatening passes, coming within 200 yards of the vessel. Chinese patrol craft also radioed threatening messages, telling the Bowditch to leave the area, which China claims as its territorial water. Beijing also lodged a diplomatic protest over the incident.
The Navy said the ship was operating legally in international waters.
A Chinese government spokewoman accused the Navy of violating China's law.
"We regard such activities as a violation of the principles of international law and of the interests and jurisdiction of China's special economic zones," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue told reporters in Beijing at the time.
The incident came weeks before Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited the United States.
A U.S. defense official at the time dismissed the Chinese claim as "laughable" because the Bowditch was operating some 60 miles off the Chinese coast. The unarmed ship was conducting hydrographic survey and "is hardly a threat," the official said.

Anyone who thinks the PRC isn't taking advantage of our laissez faire attitude toward illegals and open borders to preplan for a possible war isn't thinking very clearly.