THE ENEMY
One of the more ironic attitudes in modern American life, and in Iowa particularly, is the attitude that China is our enemy. After all, we have declared it so and once declared it becomes fact. This is how it works folks. So, if we can give it as a fact that China is our enemy then we must be prepared for war or whatever. It is time we gave it some thought however, which though difficult, is necessary.
I have not made a definite calculation, but I would suspect that at a minimum half the things in my house and office are made in China or by Chinese (Taiwan included). So the first item to consider is how do we maintain when there is nothing to buy at Walmart (if Walmart still exists since the majority of the stuff they sell us is from China) and we can not replace the most mundane items needed in our daily existence? A declaration of war would be a serious hindrance to our consumption of needed and unneeded household items.
Secondly, China has been around since recorded history and obviously pre-recorded history. So it is safe to say that China has been here thousands of years, is here now, and will be here (I'm willing to wager) long after we are gone. You can have all the wars you want, you can obliterate half the planet and make the other half uninhabitable, but China will still be here and we will not. This is my bet. We are newbies and whether we have enough collective intelligence to last very long is currently open to question.
Another boogeyman: China doesn't want our farm ground, they want our money and they are getting it as fast as we print it. We print money and then give it to the Chinese, South Koreans, Indians, Saudis, ad infinitum. These are the people who have all our money. And I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing - - just look at all the junk we have laying around that we have traded the Chinese for - - junk for money. Seems logical to me.
What we should be doing instead of declaring China an enemy, we should be declaring some helpless little country minding its own business as our enemy. We have a solid track record in this regard: Panama, Grenada, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. Declaring war on Grenada or Iraq doesn't quite have the same risks as declaring war on China. So once again, let's give all this a little thought before we get too carried away with this enemy stuff.
Richard E H Phelps II
Mingo
