RELIGION or POLITICS ??? Rules for Economic Recovery ......cont'd.

(It is written by Brian T. Kennedy, President of the Claremont Institute, and who has also written for such as the National Review, Wall Street Journal, and Investor's Business Daily. This article was published in the Newsletter, IMPRIMIS. by Hillsdale College. Let's get to it. You've read the Koran Suras to set up your base for understanding one of America's BIGGEST PROBLEM ahead.)



And happy TGIF to you too.  My last line from Wednesday read "Yet even to raise a question of whether Islam presents a domestic threat today is to invite charges of bigotry or worse".  So we pick it up from there.


NOT JUST THE ECONOMY, STUPID........

       And as dangerous as it potentially is, this domestic threat pales in comparison to the foreign threat from the Islamic Republic of IRAN and its allies -- a threat that is existential in nature.   The government in Tehran, of course, is enriching uranium to convert to plutonium and place in a nuclear warhead.    Iran has advanced ballesitic missiles such as the Shahab-3, which can be launched from land or sea and is capable of destroying an American city.   Even worse, if the Iranians were able to deliver the warhead as an electomagnetic pulse weapon from a ship off shore -- a method they have been practicing, by the way -- they could destroy the electronic infrastructure of the U.S. and cause the deaths of millions or more.   And let me be perfectly clear:  We do not today have a missile defense system in place that is capable of defending against either a ship-launched missile attack by Iran or a ballistic missile attack from China or Russia.  We do not yet today have such a system in place, even though we are capable of building one.

       Since I (author) have mentioned China and Russia, let me turn to them briefly in that order.   The U.S. trades with China and the Chinese buy our debt.   Currently they have $2 trillion in U.S. reserves, about half of which is in U.S. treasuries.   Their economy and ours are intimately intertwined.   For this reason it is thought that the Chinese will not go to war with us.   Why, after all,  would they want to destroy their main export market.???

       On the other hand, China is building an advanced army, navy, airforce, and space-based capability that is clearly designed to limit the U.S. and its ability to project power in Asia.   It has over two million men under arms adn possesses an untold number of ICBMs -- most of them aimed a the U.S. -- and hundreds of short and medium-range nuclear missiles.   China's military thinking is openly centered on opposing American supremacy, and its military journals openly discuss unrestricted warfare, atomic warfare, and terrorism.   China is also working to develop a space-based military capability and investing in various launch vehicles, including manned spaceflight, a space station, and extensive anti-satellite weaponry aimed at negating U.S. global satellite coverage.

       Absent a missile defense capable of intercepting China's ballistic missiles, the U.S. would be hard pressed to maintain even its current security commitments in Asia.   The U.S. Seventh Fleet, however capable, cannot withstand the kinds of nuclear missiles and nuclear-tipped cruise missiles that China could employ against it.   The Chinese have studied American capabilities, and have built weapons meant to negate our advantages.   The destructive capability of the recently unveiled Chinese DF-21D missile against our aircraft carriers significantly raises the stakes of a conflict in the South China Sea.   and the SS-N-22 cruise missile -- designed by the Russians and deployed by the Chinese and Iranians -- present a daunting challenge to its enormous size and Mach 3 speed.  (To be continued on Monday).  Hey. are you getting the picture????

OK,  so much for this wonderful week. Unfortunately, the dire things in the futur, near or otherwise, are not tomorrow or next week or month, it is just an insidious movement that causes many people to shrug and say "oh well, maybe it isn'' going to happen and I'll wait and fact up to it, IF it happens""   Kaboom, and that attitude is WHY it happens.   All I can say, hey, be alert, awake and vigilant. Prepare for what might and could happen, and if it doesn't, breath a sigh of relief and be  damned grateful.     Cheers      CJ