By Mr. Curmudgeon

Our Chinese “partners” are angry with us. Smoke is pouring from the nostrils of the Giant Panda over a $6.5 billion dollar U.S. arms sale to Taiwan, which includes Patriot missiles, Black Hawk helicopters and minesweepers. On the other hand, Beijing (the buyer of so much of Uncle Sam’s massive debt) is grateful for one small favor from Obama, “…by not including the F-16 fighters in the sale package this time, which concerns Beijing most, the U.S. shows that it did not intend to irritate China beyond redemption,” says the China Daily.

Back in 1972, President Richard Nixon flew to Beijing and met Mao Tse Tung in the belief “that an indispensable element of any successful peace initiative in Vietnam was to enlist, if possible, the help of the Soviets…At worst, Hanoi was bound to feel less confident if Washington was dealing with Moscow and Beijing. At best, if the two major Communist powers decided that they had bigger fish to fry, Hanoi would be pressured into negotiating a settlement we could accept,” said Nixon. We lost the war in Vietnam and now China owns us. And China is intent on using its considerable clout to bolster Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Ambrose Bierce described debt as “an ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slave driver.” Obama’s “stimulus,” and the Chinese trade dollars he needs to sustain it, makes it ever more likely the U.S. will soon feel the sting of China’s whip.