China: The Threat We Want

This is from Spacewar:

China is, to coin a Donald Rumsfeld turn of phrase, the threat we want, not the threat we face. By dint of much puffery, China can be made into the devoutly prayed for "peer competitor," an opponent against whom our "transformed," hi-tech, video-game future military can employ its toys, or more importantly, justify their acquisition. Our real enemy, the thousand faces of the Fourth Generation war practitioners, fails to meet that all-important test and is therefore deflated into "rejectionists" and "bad guys."
In fact, China's conventional forces are a long way from being able to take the United States on, especially at sea or in the air. The issue is less equipment -- not that China has much of it -- but personnel. Chinese ships spend little time at sea, its fighter pilots get few flight hours, and one can hardly speak of a Chinese "navy": it's really just a collection of ships. In a naval and air war with the United States, China would have little choice but to go nuclear from the outset, which is what I suspect it would do.

I believe China is a potential threat, but the War on Terror is more urgent. Keeping the Cold War going is a good excuse to continue buying expensive whizz bang weaponry like the F-22 Raptor, plus giant carriers and new submarines.

Meanwhile, the Army is robbing Peter to pay Paul.