I'm glad we have invested so many resources for fightin' Terrerists

[brandonbull]

Chinese and their love of human rights

"Speaking generally in May 2006, Wolf called Chinese spying efforts "frightening" and said it was no secret that the United States is a principal target of Chinese intelligence services."


I don't see how anyone can defend even giving them terrerists so much attention. The Chinese are a real threat and are doing way more damage to the US than al-qaida could ever hope for.

The war on terror is another example of people fighting yesterday's battle today. The recent problems with the Chinese reminds me of pre-WW2 times and how everone had their heads in the sand about Hitler and his bunch.

 

[mxyzptlk]

Why are people so afraid of China? It seems like they want the same things that every government wants.. stable markets worldwide in which to sell their goods. They don't quite seem to value human life the way I do, but they're reasonable enough to fake it if it is in their best economic interest. I can live with that.

Is china the next boogeyman now that the global war on terror is petering out?

 

[babylon5]

What is really frightening is Americans have no problem keep borrowing money from China so US can keep on spending and spending and keep getting into deeper debt.

 

[Craig234]

Originally posted by: brandonbull
Chinese and their love of human rights

"Speaking generally in May 2006, Wolf called Chinese spying efforts "frightening" and said it was no secret that the United States is a principal target of Chinese intelligence services."


I don't see how anyone can defend even giving them terrerists so much attention. The Chinese are a real threat and are doing way more damage to the US than al-qaida could ever hope for.

The war on terror is another example of people fighting yesterday's battle today. The recent problems with the Chinese reminds me of pre-WW2 times and how everone had their heads in the sand about Hitler and his bunch.

1. Is the driving down of wages in the US a threat, or a benefit, to the most wealthy?

2. Why are we so shocked others prepare for conflict with us, when we go around saying we have every right to intercept and monitor every phone call in the world outside the US?

If you heard China listens to every call in the US, would you have a problem with that?

 

[palehorse]

What makes you think that the public focus on terrorism has, in any way, distracted the DoD and IC from potential nation-state threats? (ie. China, NK, Iran, etc...)

We've most certainly been paying very close attention the entire time, trust me...

Right here is a recent thread we've had on this very subject... here's what I wrote:

Originally posted by: palehorse
The recent focus on terrorism has not been detrimental to our campaigns against nation states and other areas of responsibility (AOR). In fact, it's had quite the opposite effect!

9/11 itself was actually a catalyst for positive change across the entire IC. Since then, our methods and processes have improved in every area -- we communicate and operate much more effectively, and we do so in a "joint" capacity much more often then ever before. Joint Task Forces (JTF) and Working Groups (WG) are springing up all over the place, and the new order of the day is "Need to Share," instead of the outdated "Need to Know." (there are even studies and programs looking into leveraging social networks -- like Facebook -- within the IC in response to all of the new kids who thrive on such things! In other words, we're paying attention and adapting accordingly...)

We still delineate functional areas -- HUMINT, CI, CT, LE, etc -- but we do so with a constantly evolving and improving core set of skills and tools that can be applied by both agents and analysts to whatever they have as their particular AOR. Whether they focus on terrorism in the ME, domestic terrorism, or nation-state actors here and abroad; they all do so more effectively than they've ever done so before.

One of the reasons our budgets are so large is this need to focus on all of the above simultaneously -- and to develop new ways to stay ahead of ALL of the world's players.

The bottom line is that we are certainly not neglecting ANY nation-state, or AOR, especially China. The lines between the various AORs have simply become less tangible or obvious -- both internally and externally.

This is a good thing. Our agents, analysts, and most importantly, our products, are better than they've ever been!

toot toot.

 

[lupi]

So some threads rail against military spending that won't be effective against terrorist and others complain we aren't spending enough for nation v nation conflict. Yeah...

 

[Craig234]

Originally posted by: palehorse
What makes you think that the public focus on terrorism has, in any way, distracted the DoD and IC from potential nation-state threats? (ie. China, NK, Iran, etc...)

We've most certainly been paying very close attention the entire time, trust me...

Right here is a recent thread we've had on this very subject... here's what I wrote:

Originally posted by: palehorse
The recent focus on terrorism has not been detrimental to our campaigns against nation states and other areas of responsibility (AOR). In fact, it's had quite the opposite effect!

9/11 itself was actually a catalyst for positive change across the entire IC. Since then, our methods and processes have improved in every area -- we communicate and operate much more effectively, and we do so in a "joint" capacity much more often then ever before. Joint Task Forces (JTF) and Working Groups (WG) are springing up all over the place, and the new order of the day is "Need to Share," instead of the outdated "Need to Know." (there are even studies and programs looking into leveraging social networks -- like Facebook -- within the IC in response to all of the new kids who thrive on such things! In other words, we're paying attention and adapting accordingly...)

We still delineate functional areas -- HUMINT, CI, CT, LE, etc -- but we do so with a constantly evolving and improving core set of skills and tools that can be applied by both agents and analysts to whatever they have as their particular AOR. Whether they focus on terrorism in the ME, domestic terrorism, or nation-state actors here and abroad; they all do so more effectively than they've ever done so before.

One of the reasons our budgets are so large is this need to focus on all of the above simultaneously -- and to develop new ways to stay ahead of ALL of the world's players.

The bottom line is that we are certainly not neglecting ANY nation-state, or AOR, especially China. The lines between the various AORs have simply become less tangible or obvious -- both internally and externally.

This is a good thing. Our agents, analysts, and most importantly, our products, are better than they've ever been!

toot toot.

Thanks for moving our machine steps closer to 'absolute power', so the corrupted abuse of that power can increase all the sooner.

If you wouldn't trust GWB with a little Star Trek-like machine that let him blow up anything, anywhere, anytime, you should think twice about our need for further weapon development.

Think about the trends: more debilitating, faster deployment, less risk to personnel, and so on, where does it lead? To an invincible, unlimited power.

It's good to consider the useful role that war having a price has in limiting the abuse of power, it's not like we don't have enough wars rising above the barriers already.

 

[brandonbull]

I guess I'm missing how spending Billions/month and hundreds of thousands of troops to publicly fight a bunch of drug dealers/al-qaida not distracting from China and the total threat they pose to the US?

 

[Craig234]

Originally posted by: brandonbull
I guess I'm missing how spending Billions/month and hundreds of thousands of troops to publicly fight a bunch of drug dealers/al-qaida not distracting from China and the total threat they pose to the US?

What exactly would you have us doing about China that we're not doing now?

 

[brandonbull]

Originally posted by: Craig234

Originally posted by: brandonbull
I guess I'm missing how spending Billions/month and hundreds of thousands of troops to publicly fight a bunch of drug dealers/al-qaida not distracting from China and the total threat they pose to the US?

What exactly would you have us doing about China that we're not doing now?

We need to lessen our oil needs as fast as possible and become world leader in fossil fuel alternatives. Oil might be a cheap energy source but it's finite and China's oil demand is growing fast. Let them become an oil economy and then we can turn the screws to them later when they need oil alternatives. How about promoting ways to lessen our dependency on their cheap, unsafe products?

 

[palehorse]

Originally posted by: brandonbull

Originally posted by: Craig234

Originally posted by: brandonbull
I guess I'm missing how spending Billions/month and hundreds of thousands of troops to publicly fight a bunch of drug dealers/al-qaida not distracting from China and the total threat they pose to the US?

What exactly would you have us doing about China that we're not doing now?

We need to lessen our oil needs as fast as possible and become world leader in fossil fuel alternatives. Oil might be a cheap energy source but it's finite and China's oil demand is growing fast. Let them become an oil economy and then we can turn the screws to them later when they need oil alternatives. How about promoting ways to lessen our dependency on their cheap, unsafe products?

All of that sounds fantastic, but wtf does it have to do with countering China's efforts to spy on the US, or the alleged distraction to those efforts caused by the mega-popular focus on terrorism?! You know, the apparent subject of this thread's OP... the one YOU wrote...?!

 

[brandonbull]

Originally posted by: palehorse

Originally posted by: brandonbull

Originally posted by: Craig234

Originally posted by: brandonbull
I guess I'm missing how spending Billions/month and hundreds of thousands of troops to publicly fight a bunch of drug dealers/al-qaida not distracting from China and the total threat they pose to the US?

What exactly would you have us doing about China that we're not doing now?

We need to lessen our oil needs as fast as possible and become world leader in fossil fuel alternatives. Oil might be a cheap energy source but it's finite and China's oil demand is growing fast. Let them become an oil economy and then we can turn the screws to them later when they need oil alternatives. How about promoting ways to lessen our dependency on their cheap, unsafe products?

All of that sounds fantastic, but wtf does it have to do with countering China's efforts to spy on the US, or the alleged distraction to those efforts caused by the mega-popular focus on terrorism?! You know, the apparent subject of this thread's OP... the one YOU wrote...?!

The subject of this thread is the real threat China has become to the US in terms of military and economically.

Are you saying that covert operations couldn't be any better even if there were billions more $$ available? Somehow you are implying that all of the resources, in terms of money and manpower, would change nothing if diverted to other areas.

The more effort and money spent on terrerist fightin' is less resources to maintain and expand the US infrastructure which puts another obstacle in our way in terms of global competitiveness.