Not Enemies

19 August 2005



Sino-Russian War Games Strengthen America’s Hand

The Russians and the Chinese have held joint military exercises, and to listen to the pundits on the right, the threat to America is greater than during the Cold War. As usual, the hysteria is a bit over done. Indeed, the Russian and Chinese war games should be a source of relief for those in Washington who have to worry about the next step the bad guys take. A few allies might prove useful, and an ally needn’t be a friend, just someone with similar interests.

Despite what the White House would have the American consumers believe, there is a very real war going on within the Islamic world, and the Al Qaeda attacks on western nations are battles fought in the periphery. Islamic civilization is at a crossroads where it either retreats into the past like Iran has done, or moves into the future (with more than a little trepidation) like Turkey, Indonesia and Malaysia have done. Some speak of the need for a reformation within the Islamic world, but a better term might be “reconciliation” between Islam and modernity. And there are those like Usama bin Laden who reject modernity and believe a 9th century Islam is just what is needed throughout the world.

Enter China and Russia, two significant world powers for decades, both saddled with a Marxist version of modernity that didn’t really work out. The Russians overthrew it, and the Chinese have kept the police state features of communism while deciding that it is indeed “glorious to grow rich” (as stated by Deng Xioping, former communist dictator and murderer). Neither measures up to the US economically, politically or militarily. And both have a problem with Islamic populations that have been poorly integrated into domestic polity.

Operation Peace 2005, as the exercise is called, is designed to "protect peace and stability in our region and the whole world," according to General Liang Guanglie, chief of the general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Of course, generals always say that, but he explained that the enemies are “international terrorism, separatism and extremism.” China is terrified of losing not just Taiwan (which it really doesn’t have) but its western regions where non-Han Chinese Muslims live. General Yuri Baluyevsky, the head of the Russian armed forces general staff, said “Our exercises don't threaten any country.” No, they threaten terrorists, separatists and extremists, if one takes his Chinese counterpart at his word.

So be it. It is difficult to see how the US benefits from a confrontation with either, and vice versa. The Cold War was such a period, and all three countries came out the worse for starting it. Yet, if Xinjiang province were to explode with a bad case of Fascislam, would it be better to have the Chinese and Russians dealing with it, or the US Marine Corps? There are substantial differences among the American, Russian and Chinese versions of modernity, but compared with Al Qaeda’s view of life, they amount to nothing. Moreover, the Russians and the Chinese know it. Washington needs to decide just what the threat is – and it doesn’t come from Moscow or Beijing these days.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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