2005.10.14=5[#287]:9.12=#(60x4+8)[US#68] Eur.bird flu, "Goodby..". Tax return, Mikio tel long, Chen intrvews,dinner,Ore. #1. Super-USA 2. >Taiwan.

Bird flu in Europe: http://tinyurl.com/dc6xv Saddam> British QC: http://tinyurl.com/e37lh "Goodby, Papa....": http://tinyurl.com/7btkr http://tinyurl.com/8ex35 Thin cloud cool to milder: Up after 7am, Chen later off for 10:30 interview, emails unfinished, prepare to go to tax place. 10:20-11:05 finish income tax return!! To xeron green card again (lost copies last time), then to o.h., tel World Sav. then not faxing the copy for refinancing, back home. Mikio tel long, we talk about New York lives etc., giving him this address and my email address. Mei and Chen back, then Jun, still waiting for Lung to go out dinner for Chen going back to Oregon tonight, now 6:20pm. To Milpitas Gold Island dinner for Chen, with all 3 children and Jun's girl. Home, emails to blog here blow. Now 11:13pm only! Bed 12:10. #1. Super-USA's Superman Simile Story, by [C]R: [C] Tsai: ""It seems to me if the rule of laws is the commonly accepted way to maintain the world order, then cheating, evading, even subverting with lies and brute force, should be stopped. The International Criminal Court is also in Europe, where are the Europeans?"" [C]R: ""We have an old story here about how the mice voted to tie a bell around the neck of the cat. Strangely enough, the nation most in favour of subversion and bribery of others shares the cat's view. It's very happy with things just the way they are. The problem is (as I've said many times before) the USA redefines what's needed to be a "Superpower". The requirement to qualify has declined steeply. At the height of the British Empire, (the mid-1800's) the "world's only superpower" participated in more than 50% of world trade, as either buyer or seller (or possible both, as different parts of the empire bought and sold things from each other) Whereas nowadays, the world's top seven economies - the "G7" nations only control about 40% of world trade collectively. The USA's the biggest... but nowhere close to "dominating" trade the way that GB did 150 years ago. The problem is... it THINKS it is. I've used the simile of the USA as "Superman -able to leap tall buildings at a single bound, run faster than a speeding bullet..." before. That's the USA's self-image. The reality is that it can leap medium-sized buildings at a single bound, and run faster than a fairly slow bullet. The rest is just PR hype. The problem arises when - confronted by a genuinely tall building, the USA really believes it can leap over it in a single bound. The result tends to be the collapse of the upper floors as Super-USA crashes into them. On this forum, P. has repeatedly insisted that the USA simply doesn't NEED anyone else. (Along with a belief that China's manufacturing capability is only good for producing low-tech items!) P.'s views seem to be symptomatic of Middle America's views. That there's "no problem they can't handle", and that they simply don't need the agreement of anyone else to do whatever they please. I submit that the current situation in both Afghanistan and Iraq prove that to be wrong. Both are "tall buildings" draped with colourful hoardings to hide the structural damage inflicted by Superman's impact. We're supposed to believe that Superman really made the leap over them. Until the hoardings come down and the USA wakes up to reality, nothing's going to change. Parts of the USA are waking up slowly. It would be hard for example to attempt to arm-twist nations into granting exemption for the USA from the International Criminal Court on the grounds that the USA NEVER does anything that might be considered a war crime - especially since Captain Fishback of the elite 82nd Airborne went public with his difficulties about getting the routine abuse of prisoners acknowledged or addressed. It's getting harder, as more and more of GW's top advisors face investigation (and possible imprisonment) to claim that the current regime isn't riddled with corruption. We've been assured by D. that such things can't happen, because they're illegal. The case of Tom Delay seems to indicate that GW's advisors don't let a trivial matter like legality stand in their way. The key to success as a criminal is to pull ONE big job, and thereafter become a pillar of respectability. GW's coterie includes too many goods who have started out with a veneer of respectability coupled to a whole career of corruption. And each time you break the law, you leave an increasing body of evidence behind. It builds and builds until the veneer peels away. It looks like the triple job of Iraq, domestic problems like Katrina and frantically gluing veneer back is too big a job for the current administration. The fallout should be... interesting. Blanket coverup and amnesty.... or a clean sweep and prison time? The former would probably work at home... but it'll take the latter to restore international faith in the USA."" #2. US > Taiwan: ""[Tsai 05.10.14=5 #3] Yes, strategically for the US, the Iraq War could be the most serious mistake, because of the whole US foreign policy's domestic and global "Superman" behavior AND the Afghan and especially Iraq conflict practice of not fully prepared for post-war "neo-colonial" rule, even for a short time. It has started right at the moment of the end of WW2: for example, toward Taiwan: According to March 1945 to March 1946 NARA: US National lArchives ＆ Records Administration SFE104 July 30, 1945 report of 10 pages, according to Taiwan Daily: http://news.yam.com/tdn/politics/200510/20051015355707.html One week before atomic bombing, the USA, in this document Add.B, Item 2, expressed American doubt about the ability of the ROC to rule Taiwan. Yet, there was no comprehensive and concrete plan to deal with any major problems from that. This has forced the USA into the recognition of the real China, and to have "Executive Order 12143 of June 22, 1979, appear at 44 FR 37191, 3 CFR, 1979 Comp., p. 402"...: http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/12143.html ""to facilitate the maintenance of commercial, cultural and other relations between the people of the United States and the people on Taiwan without official representation or diplomatic relations"! AND, forced the US to have double standard of speaking about Taiwan belonged to China, yet assist Taiwan's defense. So now we have the current world of US vs. China. Then there was the Vietnam War, and it was not enough. Now we have the Iraq War and almost complete collapse of the American moral stand in the world. Thiere is no rule of law, when the major power like the USA twoists and mangles the international law.""