•" Army seems to be getting more disassociated from society and reality, focusing ever more myopically on countering U.S. threat to their ability to threaten Taiwan, which remains the one flash point that could matter." •
The ChiCom military has evolved over the last 20 years as a totally independent entity that functions in spite of the political leadership. Indeed, most of the CCP live in fear of the Generals. The economy's wealth development has been almost completely subjugated and rolled into the coffers of the military. Even though the standard of living is growing for a relatively small number of Chinese citizens, they still have no control over their government, and, their government has little control over the Generals. This kind of lack of accountablilty makes me very nervous. China is the next "problem" that we face. I believe that they are as big a "problem" as Radical Islam. Where Radical Islam is ***** slapping us with guerrilla tactics, China could spank us badly with convential confrontations given the current and future state of their military technology. I think they are just waiting for us to bury our heads in the sand again, hold up our peace signs, and once again disassemble our military before they strike. I am more concerned about them then I was about the Soviets. Ivan had a conscience of sorts; the Chinese have none.