RE: [A-List] China: anti-war stance

["Mark Jones" <jones118@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: a-list-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:a-list-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Michael Keaney
> Sent: 12 February 2003 10:03
> To: a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [A-List] China: anti-war stance
>
>
> Blow for Blair as China joins anti-war lobby
> Nato split grows as Chirac is told 'warfare is good for no-one'
>

There are things one is not supposed to think out loud and this is one of
them (but I can hardly be the only person to whom it has occurred):

It has long seemed obvious that as the endgame approached the actions of the
anti-US fractions would be governed by rational calculation. As the British
press, while in crowing anti-French mode, is fond of pointing out, in the
event of a speedy Anglo-American military victory, the French, Germans,
Russians etc stand to be left out in the cold as the victorious imperialism
reshapes West Asia (as we ought to learn to call the Middle East) according
to its strategic whims. But the British press has to a man not yet dared
draw the obvious conculsion from this line of thought: that in that case,
the French, Chinese etc, do not intend to let the US win so easily.

It is (and was from the get-go) in the interests of the anti-war, anti-US
bloc (EU, China, Russia) to make sure that the Anglo-Americans are denied an
easy, quick victory.

Thus, in the event that the anti-US bloc came out into the open (as it now
has), Iraq objectively becomes their military proxy in their war against US
hegemony. And they cannot afford to let their proxy be defeated too easily.

We have already seen US allegations (probably CIA) that the Chinese have
been beefing up Iraqi C3 systems, by laying military fiber-optic cables etc.
We have seen allegations that Russian proxies (Serbia, Belorussia) have been
beefing up Iraqi air defences. What we don't know, is how far the process of
covert military assistance to Saddam by China, Russia etc, has gone. But
perhaps the Americans DO know, or suspect, and perhaps that is also a reason
why they have worked themselves into such a pet just now, poor dears, and
begun stamping their feet at French perfidy. Not, I am sure, for nothing are
they openly speaking of 'Germany, Libya, Cuba' and openly calling France not
just a not-ally, but an enemy.

But what do any of us really now? Time will tell, eh?

Mark