This should be the Asian Century…

70,000 troops out of Europe and Asia Western forces surround Iran and Syria. Genocide in the Sudan More killing while the UN troops run or watch. I find the latest headlines a distraction. I have believed that ever since Russia self-destructed the next focus for the United States should be in the Pacific. Europe is a competitor, not a partner, the trouble in the Middle East is a sideshow, South America is ineffectual as a continent, and Africa is lost. The focus should be on the Pacific Rim. The War on Global Terror, you say? We both know we could end it in a day if we adopted the same morality as our opponents. Say buh-bye to the Middle East. Well, that we won't fall to their level is not as much due to our high-minded ways...they just haven't hurt us badly enough yet. Explode a couple of dirty nukes in the US, and see how long it would take for the Middle East to return to their much loved 8th century. As it is, we win slowly...draining lives and money to create a sane Middle East. Believe me, you don't want the problem to go away quicker. France and Germany may squeak and squeal about their importance to the world…but the reality is otherwise. Stagnant economies, aging populations, insanely unproductive workforce, socialist safety nets…all created behind the shelter of American military protection. Sorry boys, you have no way to project your will…and the bad guys don’t listen to UN resolutions. Old Europe, with the possible exception of Britain, is meaningless in today’s world. There has been no squandering of ‘good feeling’ after 911…there was never any good feeling to begin with. I don’t believe that in the next 30 years Europe will become a Caliphate for the Middle East. I believe that Europe will return to form, recognize the danger in time, and do what it has done many times in the last millennium…expel the Moslem invader. This time, however, America will not be there to help. Old Europe is a shadow on the world stage, not a player…and their anti-Americanism will have a price. Asia, always Asia. China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan…these are the strong economies. These are the countries with homogeneous populations. These are the countries with an ingrained work ethic that rivals the productivity of the United States. These are also the countries with gigantic armies or (as in Japan) a rich martial history. China is building up and modernizing it’s military. Even Japan has sent its soldiers overseas for the first time in 60 years. I don’t want a war with China…that would be nasty. China as a trading partner, even a trading competitor, we could stand. It would even make both of us stronger. The world has finally come down to the two final great powers. Communism will die in China with the deaths of the old guard. Without that terrible drag on the Chinese people, what wonders might they accomplish? I hope we are beside them when it happens, not against them. And I hope there are Chinese thinking they same way I am. The next serious conflict will be in the Pacific Rim…everything else is just a distraction.