The marvelous Mythusmage makes his way back after too long a hiatus. I’m catching up on world events, and writing more about them. Can’t promise I’ll be posting with any great regularity at first, but I will do my best to make what I write interesting.
BTW, check out this story from the Japan Times. I first heard about it from Glenn Reynolds, who got it from In The Agora
Yeah, I know. We’ve got enough on our plate as it is. The problem is, life in the rest of the world doesn’t stop just because we’ve got enough to handle in one corner of it. If Beijing is fool enough to invade Japan (albeit indirectly), we could find ourselves in a major shooting war.
It is said the 19th century didn’t really end until the start of World War I. Will a Sino-American war mark the end of the 20th?
3 Comments
The fall of the USSR marked the end of what we might call the Short 20th Century (as the Short 18th ended in 1789). I do think, however, that there is a coming parallel with 1914. I think China sees the USA rather as Germany saw Britain before 1914. Athwart every path to China’s Place In The Sun stands the US. If China wants to take over Taiwan, invade the Ryukyus, absorb Korea, take over the South China Sea and subjugate Southeast Asia, the US is likely to get in the way.
What spoilsports. Why doesn’t the US just go back to the Midwest and vegetate, instead of facing up to tyrants? Bloody interfering busybodies. /sarcasm, in case you were in any doubt.
” Bloody interfering busybodies.”
And for the sake of the rest of the world, may we remain so.
Mythusmage, I certainly missed you! I don’t think China is crazy. Not that crazy, anyway. Not unless we have the bad luck to get a president who kowtows to threats. I’m very thankful Kerry was not elected.
The fall of the Soviet Union could, in a sense ,be considered the last act of World War I. Since its creation was a direct result of that conflict. We are now finally in the post World War I era. Though if you look at it another way, it was the denoument of the Franco-Prussian War, thus the end of a century plus long conflict.
So in a sense we did see the end of the 20th early.
As to John Kerry, one should remember that he is a stubborn bastard, and such make for intransigent pricks. He gets elected and China gets adventurous, it’s apt to end up even worse for China than if it happened under Bush.
It’s a case of, “How dare they under my watch?”
In case you hadn’t noticed, liberals can get down right nasty when crossed.
Kathy, expect more as time goes by.